SATICOY : Woman Pleads Not Guilty in Baby Death
A migrant farm worker pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of murdering one of her babies and attempting to kill another.
Maria Francisca Jimenez Sanchez, who is in her early 20s, entered the pleas in Ventura County Municipal Court. Judge Barry B. Klopfer scheduled a preliminary hearing for Nov. 12 and ordered Sanchez to remain in the Ventura County Jail with bail set at $250,000.
The woman allegedly dumped her infant son into a portable toilet July 28 after giving birth while working in a Saticoy onion field. The medical examiner’s office determined that the baby died from breathing the wastes and chemicals in the toilet. His body was found that night when the unit was emptied.
In May, 1990, Sanchez tried to flush another baby down a toilet after giving birth at the Oxnard home where she lived, investigators said. A neighbor heard the child crying and rescued him, but the infant suffered brain damage, investigators said. That child is living in a foster home.
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