Mother pleads not guilty in baby death

Amber Willard

GLENDALE COURTHOUSE -- A La Crescenta woman accused of shaking her

5-month-old son to death pleaded not guilty at her arraignment Wednesday

morning.

Carolina Cuadra, 26, appeared in court briefly with her attorney,

Anthony R. Garcia, who later requested a hearing to possibly reduce her

$1-million bail on a murder charge for allegedly shaking her son, Daniel,

to death.

Cuadra was arrested July 8 after her son was taken to Verdugo Hills

Hospital in cardiac arrest on July 7.

The boy, who was declared brain dead from retinal hemorrhaging, was

later taken to the pediatric critical care unit at Huntington Memorial

Hospital in Pasadena. He died there at 10:59 a.m. July 9 after being

taken off of life support, Glendale Police said.

Cuadra’s husband, Reginald Steven Alvarenga, is not expected to be

charged in his son’s death, police have said. The couple’s 3-year-old

daughter was placed in foster care on July 7 after a social worker who

had been supervising the family learned that Daniel had been

hospitalized, police said.

While the girl was with the social worker, she used a doll to show how

her mother shook Daniel, police said. The family was being supervised by

the county’s Department of Children and Family Services because Daniel

was born with narcotics in his system, suggesting Cuadra used drugs while

pregnant, Police Sgt. Rick Young said.