Crime Lab’s Findings Lead to Dismissal of Murder Case : Court: The new results did not support the allegation that a couple’s infant daughter died after ingesting cocaine, the prosecutor said.

SANTA ANA —  Murder charges were dismissed Monday against a Santa Ana couple after prosecutors discovered that new crime lab results would not support their earlier contention that the couple’s infant daughter had died of cocaine ingestion.

However, Gilbert and Debbie Delgado still face charges of child endangerment and other cocaine-related charges that resulted from an investigation into the September, 1986, death of their 2-month-old daughter, Stephanie. One of the child-endangerment counts is for exposing a second baby, Gilbert Jr., born after Stephanie’s death, to cocaine in their apartment a year later.

A toxicology report from the new Orange County crime lab supports the earlier conclusion that the baby girl did have cocaine in her system some time before death, prosecutors said.

“That baby had been exposed to cocaine at some point, but the new information raises at least a reasonable doubt that the child’s death was the direct result of cocaine ingestion,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard M. King, who is prosecuting the case.

The Delgados were the first people in Orange County ever accused of murder in a child’s cocaine-related death.

King’s decision to ask Superior Court Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald to drop the murder counts came on the eve of the Delgados’ trial. If convicted on the murder counts, they could each have faced 15 years to life in prison. But now, if they are convicted on all the remaining counts, each could face a sentence ranging from probation to 12 years in prison.

Ronald G. Brower, Debbie Delgado’s attorney, said there is a strong likelihood that his client might be willing to enter some kind of guilty plea after the attorneys meet with Fitzgerald on Friday.

Brower praised prosecutor King.

“He really exemplified the highest of ethical standards,” Brower said. “He could have strung us along, or tried to get us to plea bargain. But he had the charges dismissed unconditionally, which means no strings attached.”

Debbie Delgado, 26, broke into tears when her attorney told her what King was doing. Her 29-year-old husband was also elated by the news.

The Delgados, who are free on bail, have been fighting the murder charges against them for three years. Ironically, it wasn’t until King took over as prosecutor on the case that the Delgados were accused of murder.

The couple, living in Santa Ana, had gone underground in 1986 when they discovered they were facing arrest for child endangerment after the baby’s death.

Witnesses had told police that Gilbert Delgado was a drug dealer and that Debbie Delgado was a willing participant in the couple’s cocaine lifestyle. One key witness had testified during a preliminary hearing that the Delgados either snorted or prepared cocaine near Stephanie’s baby bottles.

The couple were discovered living in Costa Mesa under different names in October, 1987, and arrested. Law enforcement authorities said they discovered then that the couple were still using cocaine, and had a new child, a 4-month-old boy. They were bound over for trial on cocaine and child-endangerment charges in January, 1988.

The charges, however, were dismissed for technical reasons. King wanted a new preliminary hearing to bring in a witness who King said knew considerable detail about the Delgados’ lifestyle. That meant refiling the charges.

The judge presiding over the new preliminary hearing in June, 1988, however, dismissed King’s murder counts. King promptly appealed and won, which meant the Delgados faced murder charges again.

King said that the new toxicology report was the result of the process of preparing for trial.

“We were gearing up so we’d be ready,” he said. “It was just one of those checks that you do to be thorough.”

But King emphasized that it was Sheriff Brad Gates’ crime lab that discovered that the earlier toxicology report had included a mathematical miscalculation. The new report said that cocaine byproducts--cocaine that had already broken down before death--had been found in the infant’s brain, liver and bloodstream.

“The people at the crime lab deserve the credit,” King said. “This was really a first-class job those people did.”

The cause of death in the child’s case has now been changed to unknown. Before the toxicology report, her death had been listed as a crib death.

The Delgados, Brower said, have recently moved to a new home in Santa Ana. Debbie Delgado remains free on $50,000 bail, and Gilbert Delgado, a construction worker who now coaches Little League, is free on $100,000 bail.

Their son, Gilbert Jr., was taken from them briefly while the couple underwent counseling. But he is now back with his parents, and the couple have another child.