After a third brain doctor failed to determine which colleague was right–the one who found Sonia Hermosillo mentally competent to stand trial for tossing her 7-month-old son to his death off the fourth level of a Children's Hospital of Orange County parking structure, or a second who believed the mother is not well enough–the judge made the deciding vote Monday.
Hermosillo has an April 6 arraignment date.
]
Judge Kazuharu Makino made that decision after a third doctor could not conclude whether Hermosillo is competent enough to stand trial for the assault and murder of Noe Medina Jr., who plunged to his death Aug. 22, 2011, near the Orange medical facility where he received treatment for plagiocephaly, a birth defect that flattens the head.
Hermosillo is accused of removing the baby's protective helmet, pushing him over the side of the parking structure, leaving Noe to die on the ground, walking into CHOC to get her parking validated and then driving off. She could get 25 years to life in state prison with a conviction.
But her mental condition became an issue even before her court dates, when Hermosillo's husband confided she had been depressed since Noe's birth and was never quite able to deal with his medical issues.
Previous coverage:
Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.
One Reply to “Sonia Hermosillo Ruled Competent to Stand Trial for Allegedly Tossing Baby to His Death”