California mother who pushed baby to death found sane

A jury on Monday found a woman was legally sane when she pushed her 7-month-old son to his death from a Southern California hospital parking structure.

Sonia Hermosillo, 41, of La Habra, could now face 25 years to life in prison when she is sentenced next month.

On Aug. 22, 2011, Hermosillo drove Noe Medina Jr. to Children’s Hospital of Orange County, where he had been undergoing treatments for several medical problems, although he didn’t have an appointment that day, prosecutors said.

Hermosillo removed a helmet that the boy was wearing for one condition and pushed him from the fourth story of the hospital parking structure, prosecutors said.

She then went into the hospital, validated her parking and drove away, authorities said.

The boy died two days later.

According to trial testimony, Hermosillo had struggled with mental health issues after the birth of the boy, who had various issues including a congenitally twisted neck.

“He was sick, and his mother didn’t want him,” prosecutor Mena Guirguis told jurors at the trial. “She made a cold-hearted decision to kill her child.”

But her attorney argued Hermosillo, who had two other children, had a psychotic break.

“Something happened to her,” attorney Jacqueline Goodman, Hermosillo’s attorney. “Nothing ever could have forced her to stop loving that baby, except psychosis.”

Last month, an Orange County jury convicted Hermosillo of first-degree murder and assault on a child causing death. She had pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. The same jury ruled in her sanity trial.