Baby Dies; Day-Care Operator Is Arrested

A state-licensed day-care operator in Cypress was arrested Thursday on suspicion of murdering a 4-month-old boy in her care, authorities said.

Lorrie Mae Stoddard, 54, is being held in Orange County Jail on $1 million bail.

Stoddard called 911 Tuesday afternoon and said Noah Samuel Gusto had stopped breathing, Cypress Police Sgt. Jim Olson said. He said the baby was from Cypress but released no information about his family.

The baby was taken to Los Alamitos Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. An autopsy revealed the child suffered hemorrhaging of the brain and ruptured optic nerves, injuries consistent with “shaken-baby syndrome,” he said.

Stoddard has operated day-care centers from her current home in Cypress and in Lakewood and Temecula for more than 10 years, Olson said, always for babies 8 months old and younger. Other children were in her care at the time of the incident, but Olson did not know how many.

The Cypress day-care center was licensed in 2000 for as many as eight children at a time, California Department of Social Services spokesman Michael Weston said.

A complaint was filed against Stoddard in May, alleging that she yelled at an infant.

Weston said the incident could neither be proved nor disproved.

In August 2003, a complaint that she caused injury by dropping a baby into a crib filled with toys was substantiated, Weston said, and the facility was ordered to clear out its cribs.

Stoddard is set to be formally charged Monday in Westminster.

kelly-anne.suarez@latimes.com