Accepting the DA's one-time, take-it-or-leave-it offer, defendant Alexandrea Raven Scott, age 23, of Trinidad (Humboldt County), pleaded guilty this morning to felony child endangerment. She also admitted a special sentencing enhancement alleging that the abuse of her 18-month old infant son was a proximate cause of the child's death.
A no contest plea to a felony charge is the same for all purposes under the law as a guilty plea.
In order to accept this disposition (and avoid a possible murder conviction), defendant Scott was also required to stipulate to an aggravated sentence of 10 years in state prison and to waive all local jail credits.
Because felony child abuse -- even abuse causing death -- has not been characterized by the Legislature as a crime of violence, the defendant is eligible to earn time credits in prison of up to 50% of her overall sentence. Moreover, it is expected that voter-approved Proposition 57 will further shorten the time the defendant must serve in prison, mandating her release on community supervision after she has served only three years.
"This was a death that should not have happened; I expect that it has left a unfillable hole in the lives of the child's father, as well as the paternal and maternal sides of the extended families," said DA David Eyster, the prosecutor handling this case.
"If nothing else, I hope the stipulated prison time will send a message that those who abuse children should expect to be treated like the serious criminals that they are. In this case, it remains difficult to believe that a parent would leave her child alone for hours on end strapped into a car seat in a closed vehicle -- all night into the following afternoon. How is it possible that the child's mother did not safeguard her infant, failed to provided him food and hydration for double digit hours, and allowed him to die a lonely, excruciating death in a hot car while she was literally yards away "partying" in a house with strangers? This sort of abuse is well-deserving of hard time in state prison," said Eyster.
Following the Court's acceptance of her change of plea, defendant Scott's matter was referred to the Adult Probation Department for a social study and prison packet. The information developed by probation travels with the defendant to the CDCR to help the prison authorities perform intake, classification, and facility assignment.
The 10-year prison sentence will be formally imposed at the next calling of the case on Aug. 15, 2018 at 9 o'clock in the morning in Department H at the Ukiah courthouse. Any individual interested in the concluding proceedings or this defendant is welcome to attend that sentencing hearing.
The law enforcement agency that handled the underlying criminal investigation of the child's death and submitted the crime reports and findings that allowed the DA to pursue today's conviction is the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office.
The judge who will preside over the sentencing hearing on Aug. 15th will be Mendocino County Superior Court Judge John Behnke.
No freakin way
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