Fresno woman gets 19 years in prison for drowning baby

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A Fresno woman pleaded no contest to charges she killed her two-month-old baby.

Gabriella Espinosa admitted she drowned the child in a hotel bathtub four years ago. She was initially ruled mentally incompetent to stand trial, and was sent to a mental hospital.

Espinosa cried as she entered pleas of no contest to manslaughter charges in the death of her two-month-old son, Gabriel. In exchange for the plea, she's agreed to a 19 year prison term despite strong evidence of her mental health problems.

"This is a fair deal for her in that she knows when she is going to get out," said Defense Attorney Barbara O'Neill. "That was very important to her. If she had persisted in her not guilty by reason of insanity plea, she would have been sent to an indeterminate term in the hospital and she didn't want that."

Espinosa was arrested in April of 2010 after crashing her car on Highway 41. She told the highway patrol officer she had drowned her baby. Police found the infants body, and two other children aged six and four in a hotel room. They were not hurt.

Espinosa confessed she had planned to kill herself and all of the children. Her attorney, Barbara O'Neill explained Espinosa suffered from postpartum depression, and noted she had been unable to get assistance on the day of the crime.

"She went for help eight times that day, to different institutions asking for help," said O'Neill. "The end result was at ten o'clock at night they placed her in a hotel in a bad part of Fresno where she felt like she was under attack by people because she wasn't thinking clearly. That's a problem, a big problem that we don't have enough facilities to help people who are begging for help."

County social workers had placed Espinosa and her children in the motel after she and her husband got into a fight.

Three court appointed doctors said she was not mentally competent to stand trial, but four years later, after treatment at the state hospital she will be sentenced to prison next week. Her two surviving children are with their father.

Gabriella Espinosa was sentenced to 19 years in prison. But with credit for time served and other factors she could serve 13, and be released when she is 40 years old.