By Dave Andrusko
Carol Coronado with her attorney Stephen Allen ((Steve McCrank / Daily Breeze Staff Photographer)
The attorney for a California woman convicted of murdering g her three children in 2014 said he will appeal the judge’s decision Thursday that Carol Coronado was sane when she slashed and stabbed 3-month-old Xenia, 16-month-old Yazmine, and 2-year-old Sophia to death.
“Compton Superior Court Judge Ricardo Ocampo’s decision means Carol Ann Coronado, 32, will spend the rest of her life in prison without any chance of release,” reported Larry Altman of the Daily Breeze. The 32-year-old Compton will be sentenced January 7.
“Ocampo read his verdicts quickly, pronouncing Coronado sane on each of three first-degree murder counts,” Altman continued. “The judge, who decided the case in lieu of a jury, offered no other comments.”
In the trial’s first phase, which ended last week, Judge Ocampo found Coronado guilty of first-degree murder with special circumstances of committing multiple murders.
As NRL News Today reported earlier this week, Coronado’s defense attorney, Stephen Allen, tried to convince Judge Ocamp to find her not guilty by reason of insanity. “That verdict would place her in a mental health institution with a chance to someday be released,” according to Altman.
Allen told the judge that Coronado suffered from postpartum psychosis. Diana Barnes, a marriage and family counselor, testified that the killings were “an altruistic filicide”–that Coronado believed what she was doing was in her children’s best interest.
Neither the homicide detectives nor the prosecutors believed Coronado was ill. They argued the killings were planned, revenge against a husband” who provided little help with raising the children and wanted a divorce.”
Deputy District Attorney Emily Spear suggested “during questioning of witnesses that Coronado is faking symptoms of postpartum psychosis that are easily found on Internet sites, including Barnes’ own website,” Altman reported.
Spear also said that Julie Piercey, Coronado’s mother, “might have interrupted a plan to also kill Rudy Coronado,” Altman reported. “Coronado had knives and scissors laid out in the kitchen.”
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