Posted on 09/08/2002 2:37:16 AM PDT by chance33_98
De La Cruz will serve six months in jail By JASON SCHULTZ
Sentinel staff writer
SANTA CRUZ — The woman who smothered her newborn in a UC Santa Cruz dorm room six years ago will serve time in the County Jail after all.
Joanne De La Cruz, 26, was sentenced in July to six months in jail and three months on an electronic monitoring device, as well as 500 hours of community service.
De La Cruz pleaded guilty earlier in the year to voluntary manslaughter, admitting she killed her infant minutes after birth and then disposed of the body in a Dumpster. The body was never found, but the death came to light in 2000 after De La Cruz told a therapist what she had done, and the therapist told authorities.
De La Cruz, who now lives with her parents in San Leandro, had asked for a delay in her sentence to see if she could arrange to serve her jail time on a work furlough program in Alameda County. Prosecutor Christine McGuire said Alameda County rejected De La Cruz’s request Thursday because of the nature of her offense.
McGuire and De La Cruz’s attorney, Ben Rice, appeared before Judge Art Danner Friday morning, but De La Cruz was not present. Danner ruled De La Cruz must serve the six months in County Jail. McGuire said she will not be eligible for a work furlough here, either.
Since the sentencing, De La Cruz has been performing community service putting up posters around Santa Cruz. The posters have information about a California law that allows mothers to drop their newborns off at hospitals within 72 hours of birth without facing criminal prosecution.
De La Cruz is expected to spend most of her community service helping to promote the law by putting up the posters, and putting similar stickers on area Dumpsters.
De La Cruz must turn herself in to county authorities by Oct. 4 to begin serving her sentence.
Sort of like putting up a "no littering" sign, I guess.
And six months is a really light sentence for murder, but, then again, patial-birth abortion is legal and concepually not too different from this young womans actions. I guess the lesson is to get at 'em right away.
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