Francisca Maria Jimenez Sanchez

I feel deep sympathy for Francisca Maria Jimenez Sanchez, the Ventura County woman who is on trial for drowning her baby. This 22-year-old farm worker obviously had no care or concern all through her first pregnancy. She had to keep it a secret. She had the same nausea, growing clumsiness, weary waiting, labor contractions and pain that all pregnant women have, only no one supported her. She had to get permission to leave the onion fields to go to the latrine because she was having a "stomach ache."

Hunched behind shatterproof glass in an interview room at the Ventura County Jail, Francisca Maria Jimenez Sanchez looked scared and confused as she talked of her two newborn babies, one of them dead and the other allegedly brain-damaged. "I just pray prayers," she said. "And I ask God to get me out of this place."

Hunched behind shatterproof glass in an interview room at the Ventura County Jail, Francisca Maria Jimenez Sanchez looked scared and confused as she talked of her two newborn babies, one of them dead and the other allegedly brain-damaged. "I just pray prayers," she said. "And I ask God to get me out of this place."

I feel deep sympathy for Francisca Maria Jimenez Sanchez, the Ventura County woman who is on trial for drowning her baby. This 22-year-old farm worker obviously had no care or concern all through her first pregnancy. She had to keep it a secret. She had the same nausea, growing clumsiness, weary waiting, labor contractions and pain that all pregnant women have, only no one supported her. She had to get permission to leave the onion fields to go to the latrine because she was having a "stomach ache."

A 22-year-old Ventura County farm worker accused of twice dropping her infants into toilets, injuring the first and killing the second, was ordered to stand trial for murder and attempted murder. Municipal Judge John R. Smiley ordered Francisca Maria Jimenez Sanchez held for trial after a 2 1/2-day preliminary hearing.

A 22-year-old Ventura County farm worker accused of twice dropping her infants into toilets, killing one and causing brain damage to another, was ordered Thursday to stand trial for murder and attempted murder. Francisca Maria Jimenez Sanchez is scheduled to be arraigned on those charges Nov. 27 in Ventura County Superior Court. Municipal Judge John R. Smiley ordered Sanchez held for trial after a 2 1/2-day preliminary hearing.

A preliminary hearing started Tuesday with grisly testimony against a 22-year-old farm worker accused of twice dropping her infants into toilets--injuring the first and killing the second. Witnesses testified in Ventura County Municipal Court that a sanitation worker found a newborn boy's body in a chemical toilet in a Saticoy onion field in July, 40 hours after Francisca Maria Jimenez Sanchez had used the toilet after complaining of stomach pains.

As friends and family gathered Friday to bury 2-year-old Joselyn Hernandez, the doctor who brought her into the world lamented the short life and painful death of a toddler who authorities say died because she was beaten. Joselyn's miniature white casket was lowered into the earth at Santa Clara Cemetery. Clutching pink and yellow carnations and choking back tears, Rogelio Hernandez and Gabriela Nieto, both 18, sat somberly by the grave of their daughter.

Francisca Maria Jimenez Sanchez looked scared and confused as she talked of her two newborn babies, one of them dead now and the other allegedly brain-damaged. "I just pray prayers," she said, hunched behind shatterproof glass in an interview room at the Ventura County Jail. "And I ask God to get me out of this place."