Judge Clears Mother Who Killed Baby

In an extraordinary reversal, a Superior Court judge Friday rejected a jury’s murder verdict against an Orange County woman who drove a car over her infant son and instead found her not guilty by reason of insanity caused by a rare postpartum psychosis.

The decision by Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald in the case of Sheryl Lynn Massip stunned the Santa Ana courtroom where cheers broke out from Massip’s relatives and tears flowed freely. Prosecutors said they will appeal.

The judge’s ruling, which he later revealed he decided on at the last minute, means that Massip, 24, of Anaheim, who faced life imprisonment after a jury last month found her guilty of murder, instead will stay home with her family for Christmas. She faces the possibility of court-ordered psychiatric care, under which she could be committed to an institution for up to 11 years.

‘The Gift of Life’

“I couldn’t have asked God for a better Christmas present,” said Massip, who had read the Bible while she awaited her sentencing in court. “I got the gift of life.”

On her 23rd birthday in April, 1987, Massip tried to throw her 6-week-old son into oncoming traffic, then hit him over the head repeatedly with a blunt object and finally ran over him with the family car.

Massip then told police that her child had been snatched from her arms by a mystery woman with red hair and a gun. But shortly after Massip went to authorities, her son’s body was found in a trash can.

Massip claimed that she was suffering at the time from postpartum psychosis, a rare disorder that is thought to spur severe anxiety, delusions and even violence in about three of every 1,000 new mothers. But an Orange County jury rejected Massip’s claim, finding her guilty of second-degree murder.

Friday’s decision by Fitzgerald, a 12-year veteran of the bench who is regarded as a tough-minded jurist, exceeded the best hopes of even Massip, her lawyer and the many family members who packed the Santa Ana courtroom.

Massip’s attorney, Milton C. Grimes of Santa Ana, said he had hoped at best to persuade Fitzgerald either to sentence Massip to probation without prison on the murder conviction or to grant her a new trial.

Two-Part Decision

Instead, Fitzgerald delivered an unprecedented two-part decision that, pending appeals, effectively cleared Massip of murder charges.

He first reduced her second-degree murder conviction to one of voluntary manslaughter. But then, in a ruling that essentially negates that conviction, he ruled that she was not guilty by reason of insanity.

On rare occasions, trial judges have been known to reduce murder verdicts by juries if the verdicts are considered excessive. But legal observers said that for Fitzgerald also to have completely overturned the jury’s finding that Massip was sane is unheard of in California courts. They could cite no precedent.

Fitzgerald said he had not finally decided on his ruling until the moment he delivered it. And the judge deemed his decision “extraordinary relief.”

“This is new ground that we’ve plowed today,” Fitzgerald said in an interview. “I don’t know of another court that came to a decision like the one I did, to set aside the jury verdict altogether.

“I know people will say I’ve overstepped my bounds. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized I didn’t have any choice but to find her insane. . . . She was bonkers.

“A trial judge has an obligation to effect justice, and I had to do what I felt was right. I just had to go with my conscience.”

Prosecution Stunned

Deputy Dist. Atty. Tom Borris, stunned by the judge’s reversal of the hard-fought murder conviction that he gained Nov. 17, said the district attorney’s office is certain to appeal the decision.

“He could have given her probation. He could have given her a new trial. We wouldn’t have agreed, but that at least would have been reasonable,” the prosecutor said.

But in ruling Massip insane, Borris said, Fitzgerald “did something he doesn’t have the precedent to do. . . . I’m shocked.”

On Feb. 3, Massip will reappear before Fitzgerald, who will determine whether she should be committed for psychiatric care.

The foreman of the jury that convicted Massip, Raymond Seymour of Irvine, said that despite Fitzgerald’s ruling, “I don’t have any second thoughts (about the conviction).

“It surprises me, the judge’s ruling. But I can live with it. It doesn’t upset me.”

Called Gut-Wrenching

Seymour and other jurors have said their decision was a gut-wreching one, perhaps the most painful some of them have ever had to make. But they have so far refused to discuss just how they came to their conclusion.

Another juror, Valerie Slimm of Dana Point, said upon learning of Fitzgerald’s ruling: “I really don’t know what to say. . . . I guess I have a lot of thinking to do. It was hard on all of us; I think we all tried to put it behind us. I’m not sure if this makes it any easier or harder to do that now.”

Massip’s husband, Alfredo Massip, who served her with divorce papers while she was in jail, refused to speak with reporters. He reportedly wrote a letter before today’s sentencing urging strong punishment for his ex-wife.

Times staff writer Nancy Wride contributed to this story.