Mother, Daughter Discuss Assault in Police Videotape

The jury hearing the case of a Simi Valley mother and daughter accused of trying to kill the teen’s stepfather watched a videotape of the pair recorded at the Simi Valley police station shortly after the alleged attack.

The grainy black and white video shows Jennifer Childs, 19, and Eileen Childs, 37, discussing the early-morning altercation that led to them later being charged with attempted murder, arson and the use of deadly weapons.

Also on the video, Jennifer Childs--an aspiring pop singer--appears to tell her mother for the first time about alleged sexual advances made by stepfather Larry Childs when she was 14.

The women are accused of setting fire to Larry Childs’ bed March 25 and then hitting him repeatedly with baseball bats after he ran from the room. The prosecution contends the pair were motivated by greed and hoped to kill the 57-year-old man to collect $1.4 million in life insurance.

However, the defense maintains that Eileen, Jennifer and her two younger brothers were victims of an abusive man and that the women acted in self-defense.

In the hourlong video, Jennifer Childs wears pajamas and is speaking softly. When her mother asks her what she told police, she responds:

“I told them everything. But there’s one thing about Dad I never told you.” The teen went on to mention alleged attempts by Larry Childs to molest her five years earlier when the two of them took a family trip to Virginia.

It was difficult for jurors to gauge the extent of Eileen Childs’ reaction, because her back was facing the camera.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Eileen Childs asked, without sounding or appearing surprised or upset. She later tried to press her daughter for details, but the teenager declined to elaborate.

Jennifer Childs also was heard expressing relief to her mother after learning that her stepfather would not require surgery.

“I wasn’t trying to beat his skull in, I was just trying to make him stop,” the teen said. Thinking her parents were struggling after the fire, Jennifer Childs said she went for a bat to stop Larry Childs.

Defense attorney Jenny Scovis, who represents Eileen Childs, said the women were unaware that they were being taped but that the video, although part of the prosecution’s case, ultimately will help the defense.

“Whatever they said, they thought they were saying in private,” Scovis said. But, “the tape goes right in line with our defense.”

In other testimony Thursday, the prosecution called emergency room doctor Gunter Wiedemann to testify about the severity of Larry Childs’ wounds that day.

His testimony seemed to contradict earlier prosecution assertions that the injuries were severe to life threatening.

He described the man’s condition as “stable with a couple of nasty lacerations.”