THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 6, 1995 TAG: 9501060500
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Long : 110 lines
The Circuit Court jury first decided that the mother and father criminally neglected their infant son by starving him.
Then it recommended that each parent go to jail for 106 days and pay a $106 fine. That's a day and a dollar for each day that tiny Christopher N. Herrera suffered, from when he left a hospital in late January 1994 to the day in early May when horrified bystanders reported his emaciated condition to police.
The parents - Martin Herrera Jr., 21, and his wife, Karen E. Herrera, 20 - held hands but showed no reaction Thursday to the guilty verdicts or the unusual sentences that ended their emotional, three-day trial. But Karen Herrera, a pink bow in her hair, had sobbed on her husband's Navy uniform shirt while the jury deliberated their fate, and her mother wept while sitting two rows behind her.
``Interesting sentence,'' said the prosecutor, Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Janee D. Joslin. ``I think it's fair.''
``It's partly fair,'' said Christopher's former foster father, Bruce E. Watson Sr. of Virginia Beach. ``I still don't think they should have the kids.''
``Definitely,'' Joslin said. ``I echo that.''
The decision by Social Services to return Christopher to the Herreras before their trial drew strong criticism. But the agency countered that it was in the infant's best interest to be with his parents, who also have at home a 3-year-old daughter and another daughter born in December.
Social Services remains legally responsible only for Christopher, now 1 year old, and monitors his care.
Judge Kenneth M. Whitehurst isn't bound by the jury's recommendation, but he can't impose a more severe sentence. The Herreras' convictions were for negligently placing Christopher in a situation where his ``life, health or morals are endangered,'' punishable by up to five years in prison or a year in jail and $2,500 in fines. The judge earlier dismissed a more serious charge punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
The Herreras' defense attorneys asked the jury to show compassion and impose fines only. Joslin asked for two years in prison.
``I'm sure her tears are real - but so were his,'' Joslin said, waving a color picture of the emaciated Christopher.
``This'' - she tapped the photo - ``was because of them. . . . He didn't deserve this. He didn't deserve to be starved.''
The Herreras, their lawyers and supporters declined comment as they left the courthouse.
The couple were allowed to remain free on personal-recognizance bonds until their formal sentencing Feb. 21.
Christopher was 5 months old and weighed little more than a newborn at 9 pounds 6 1/2 ounces when he was hospitalized May 6 after police were called. One witness said the whimpering infant looked like an Auschwitz concentration camp survivor. He had a distended stomach, spindly limbs, visible ribs, and buttocks that were little more than flat folds of bluish-colored flesh.
A few weeks later, the boy was placed in foster care, and his parents were charged with felony child neglect.
Foster parents Watson and his wife had Christopher from May until October, when Social Services returned the boy to his parents before their trial, after they completed 16 hours of parenting classes.
Martin Herrera had been accused of physically abusing their older daughter two years earlier in California and admitted to investigators there that frustration at work caused him to block the 3-month-old's breathing for several seconds. Herrera was never prosecuted.
The return of Christopher caused the Watsons to quit the city foster-parent program in disgust, drew protests from the boy's court-appointed guardian and outraged prosecutors who were trying to put the parents in jail.
On Wednesday, Martin Herrera testified that he often was away from home because of his Navy duty - he was assigned to a ship based at Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base - and Karen Herrera handled most of the child care.
In her turn on the witness stand, she tearfully testified that she thought Christopher was looking better than three months earlier, after he underwent surgery to remove an intestinal blockage that prevented him from keeping down his food.
She told police and Child Protective Services investigators and Portsmouth Naval Medical Center doctors that she fed Christopher 8 ounces of formula plus baby cereal every three or four hours. She testified Wednesday that she meant she ``offered'' him food that often, but he didn't usually eat it.
``He didn't want to suck,'' she said. ``He seemed to have lost interest in putting effort into it. . . . When I tried to feed him, he would push it away or fall asleep. It wasn't drastic. It wasn't that he didn't get a drop of food in him. He was offered food. . . . Because he was taking some in, I figured he was doing OK.''
Doctors and Watson, the foster father, said they had no trouble feeding Christopher, whose weight climbed rapidly to normal ranges under the Watsons' care.
Karen Herrera's attorney, Elizabeth R. Gold, said her client saw her son gaining some weight and didn't understand that she was supposed to return him for doctor's examinations.
``If he gained 2.5 pounds, would we not be here?'' she asked the jury. ``If he gained 3 pounds, would we not be here?
``Mothers have to make judgment calls. Is a poor judgment call `criminal neglect?' ''
The prosecutor asked whether Christopher would have lasted another month.
``They knew their child was starving, and they didn't care,'' Joslin said. ``There wasn't anything wrong with Christopher, nothing that food couldn't fix.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
MOTOYA NAKAMURA/Staff
Karen E. Herrera, 20, and Martin Herrera Jr., 21, shown earlier this
week, had been found guilty of criminally neglecting their son.
KEYWORDS: CHILD NEGLECT CHILD ABUSE ARREST
TRIAL SENTENCING by CNB