She murdered one child in her care and endangered seven others, the panel determines.

Press-Enterprise, The (Riverside, CA)

Jury convicts former foster mother:

RIVERSIDE: She murdered one child in her care and endangered seven others, the panel determines.

Author: MIKE KATAOKA; THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

A Riverside woman who took foster children into her home, where some were battered and starved, was convicted Wednesday of murdering a toddler three years ago through torturous abuse.

Cynthia Marie Jackson, 39, also was found guilty of endangering seven other toddlers, who suffered broken bones, bruises and malnutrition in her well-kept Via San Jose home. Jurors agreed that four of the endangerment counts were felonies and three were misdemeanors.

The seven-woman, five-man jury deliberated two days before finding that 23-month-old Andrew Ibarra died from injuries inflicted by Jackson and that his suffering amounted to torture.

Jurors agreed with prosecutor Michael Hestrin that the killing was first-degree murder because of the torture.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Vilia Sherman will sentence Jackson on Dec. 10. She could receive life in prison.

A county pathologist testified that Andrew's injuries, including a fractured rib, punctured stomach wall and swollen brain, were caused by multiple blows. He said the child died from the combination of injuries, which he called fatal child abuse syndrome.

"Andrew Ibarra was tortured because the boy suffered extreme, prolonged pain," Hestrin told jurors in his closing argument last week.

Co-defense attorney Peter Scalisi argued to jurors that Hestrin had failed to prove his case.

"I don't think the government can prove who actually killed Andrew Ibarra," he said.

Scalisi suggested that Jackson's husband, the only defense witness to testify, was the culprit.

If Cynthia Jackson did inflict the fatal injuries, Scalisi said, the crime was involuntary manslaughter.

Pinning the blame on Jeffery Jackson was an act of desperation by the defense in the face of overwhelming evidence, Hestrin said in his argument.

"There's no evidence that anyone did this other than Cynthia Jackson," the prosecutor said.

After Andrew died on July 19, 2000, the foster mother told police that he had fallen from a park slide the day before. But the pathologist, Dr. Joseph Cohen, said such a fall would not account for the massive injuries he saw while performing the autopsy.

Jeffery Jackson testified that his wife and the foster children had not gone to the park the day before.

Andrew had been placed in Jackson's home by social services officials in San Bernardino County, where he had been declared a ward of the court.

After his death, his birth mother, Estrella Ibarra, sued Riverside and San Bernardino counties, asserting that officials should have known that Jackson previously had been investigated over allegations of child abuse.

In a settlement, Ibarra received $175,000 from each county, said her attorney, Jack Anthony.

Two brothers whom Anthony also represented, Kenneth and Brandon Shoemaker, were under Jackson's care at the time of Andrew Ibarra's death, and they also had been abused. Under a settlement with the counties, each boy will be compensated from an annuity at the rate of $400 a month until age 30, when he will receive a payment of more than $65,000.

Social services officials acknowledged a communications breakdown that caused foster children to be placed in Jackson's home after others had been removed because of injuries indicative of abuse. Jackson maintained her license to run a foster home until the day Andrew died.

Caption:

Convicted of murder, ex-foster mother Cynthia Marie Jackson could be given life in prison when she is sentenced Dec. 10.