California IN BRIEF : VENTURA : Woman Is Guilty in Newborn’s Death

A farm worker was found guilty of second-degree murder for the July, 1991, death of her newborn son in a portable toilet in a Saticoy onion field. But the Ventura County Superior Court jury found Francisca Maria Sanchez Jimenez not guilty of attempting to murder another son, who was rescued from a flush toilet at her Oxnard residence two years ago. With her second-degree murder conviction, Jimenez, 23, must face another jury trial to determine whether she is innocent by reason of insanity. Deputy Dist. Atty. Carol J. Nelson told jurors it was more than coincidence that in each case the umbilical cords were broken and the infants ended up in toilets. The only logical explanation, she said, was that Jimenez wanted to get rid of the babies. But defense psychologists described Jimenez as an illiterate woman from a Mexican village who was never taught the basics of human reproduction. “I think what we have here is a compromise,” Public Defender Jean L. Farley said, referring to the jury’s decision to reject a first-degree murder charge. “I still think she’s innocent.”