SANTA ANA, Calif. – A La Habra mother was found by a jury to be sane when she pushed her 7-month-old son off the fourth story of the Children’s Hospital of Orange County parking structure in Orange, killing the infant.
Sonia Hermosillo, 41, of La Habra, was convicted by a jury last month of one felony count of first-degree murder and one felony count of assault on a child causing death. Hermosillo had entered a plea of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity, triggering a separate trial to determine whether she was legally insane at the time of the crime.
The same jury which convicted Hermosillo of first-degree murder also found her to be sane at the time of the murder.
Hermosillo is currently being held on no bail. She faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life. She is scheduled to be sentenced on October 29, 2021 at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana in Department C30.
On Aug. 22, 2011, Hermosillo drove her 7-month-old son, Baby Noe, to the Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) and parking her car on the fourth floor of a parking structure. The baby suffered medical conditions that required him to receive medical treatment at CHOC regularly, but the infant did not have a scheduled appointment that day. Baby Noe wore a medical helmet for one of his medical conditions.
At approximately 6:20 p.m., Hermosillo removed her baby’s helmet and pushed Baby Noe from the parking structure with the intention of murdering him with the four-story fall. Hermosillo then walked inside the hospital, validated her parking, and drove away.
A witness who saw the baby falling through the air called 911 and the Orange Police Department (OPD) responded to the scene. Baby Noe was taken to the trauma center at the University of California, Irvine Medical Center in critical condition. He died two days later.
Shortly after Baby Noe was pushed off the parking structure, Hermosillo’s husband called law enforcement to report his wife and infant son were missing. That night an Orange police officer saw Hermosillo driving past CHOC on Main Street and arrested her.
Hermosillo has two other children.
“No child should die at the hands of another human being, let alone the very person whose most basic responsibility is to keep that child safe from harm,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. “Baby Noe should be here today, but he is not because of the methodical and callous decision by his own mother to push him to his death. No words can express the incredible sorrow that his father and siblings have had to suffer by the loss of Baby Noe.”
Senior Deputy District Attorney Mena Guirguis of the Homicide Unit is prosecuting this case.
