Mother Faces Life In Prison For Killing Toddler
A woman convicted of the beating death of her 21-month-old son was sentenced on Friday to 15 years to life in prison.
Superior Court Judge Randall D. White denied Ana Alicia Cedillo’s new trial and probation requests before imposing the sentence.
Cedillo, 28, was convicted June 3 of murder and seven lesser felonies — attempted assault on a child with great bodily injury and six counts of willful child cruelty — for causing her son Oscar’s death the night of Sept. 27, 2007.
Prosecutors said Cedillo had several years of prior contact with Child Protective Services before her son’s death. Her children had been taken away from her at one point, prosecutors said, but were returned after she completed a 12-week parenting class.
“Baby Oscar endured more pain and torment in his short life than most people will endure in an entire lifetime,” Deputy District Attorney Christopher Ross said in June. “The facts of this case were not easy for anyone to hear, but the jury heard them and returned the right verdict, thereby making sure that this innocent child got the justice he deserved.”
Cedillo, then 24, put Oscar to bed in her Indio home around 11 that night in 2007, after he had been suffering for several days with fever, extreme abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, prosecutors said. He died at some point during the night.
An autopsy showed that the toddler had endured multiple blunt force trauma injuries to his abdomen, including a fatally ruptured small intestine. He also had multiple blunt force trauma injuries to his head, several healing rib fractures, a chipped front tooth, a missing front tooth and bruises.
Authorities said Cedillo initially blamed Oscar for his bruises, claiming they were the result of “falling in the bathtub.” She later recanted and acknowledged hitting Oscar on several occasions just days before his death.
