Shawn Kelli Sepulveda was sentenced today to five years in state
prison for attempting to murder her newborn baby girl by
dumping her in an apartment complex dumpster.
Evidence emerged during the trial that the 41-year-old Laguna Niguel resident admitted to police that she knew she could put the infant up for adoption or surrender her to a fire station.
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As the Orange County District Attorney's Office (OCDA) noted:
“California's Safely Surrendered Baby Law (SSB) allows a parent or person
with lawful custody to safely surrender a baby to a public or private
hospital, designated fire station, or other safe surrender site within
72 hours of birth. This safe surrender can be done confidentially with
no questions asked and without fear of prosecution.”
Sepulveda was found guilty by a jury July 28 on one felony count of attempted murder and one felony count of child abuse.
Sepulveda tried to hide for her husband and two children, ages 11 and 13, her pregnancy because the baby in her tummy was not her husband. They became suspicious and asked her if she was with child, but she denied it and continued her boozing ways.
Early on the morning of Aug. 16, 2008, Sepulveda gave birth to the baby girl inside her Laguna Niguel apartment. Around 7 a.m., she wrapped the newborn in a towel and carried her to a dumpster, removing the towel after depositing said baby naked in the receptacle.
Mom then took the towel with her, possibly to clean up the after birth. Or not, for that morning her husband awoke to find blood in the bathroom. When Sepulveda returned to the apartment, the hubby and their 11-year-old daughter noticed Mom had blood on her clothing.
The 11-year-old daughter was sent to look for a newborn baby. She found her sister in the
rubbish receptacle and alerted apartment personnel, who called 9-1-1. Sepulveda, who the defense would go on to portray as a “doting soccer mom,” was arrested that morning.
Sepulveda's three children–including the baby girl–were placed in protective
custody, and the “distraught” doting soccer mom was placed on suicide watch in jail.
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.