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Life term in tot's death

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Press-Enterprise, The (Riverside, CA)

COURT: The former foster mother is sentenced for the torture murder of a 23-month-old boy.

Author: MIKE KATAOKA; THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE // 2000 / THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

RIVERSIDE

A judge scolded Child Protective Services and sentenced a former foster mother to life in prison Wednesday for the torture death of a toddler in a spotless Riverside home where he and other children were starved and battered.

A jury decided last month that Andrew Ibarra, 23 months, died a torturous death at the hands of Cynthia Marie Jackson, who also had mistreated seven other children placed in her home.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Vilia Sherman said the extremely tidy home on Via San Jose was a facade, much like a Czechoslovakian concentration camp that Nazis touted as a model Jewish settlement.

"It seems to me this was essentially Theresienstadt for children," she said. "That's when CPS went and looked, the house was clean and tidy and so forth. It was a model.

"But as soon as their backs were turned, it was something quite different. I think Child Protective Services has to share some of the responsibility but that doesn't mitigate the defendant's responsibility."

Sherman sentenced the 41-year-old Jackson to 25 years to life for the first-degree murder conviction. She added eight years and eight months to the sentence, to be served consecutively, for endangering other children.

Trial evidence showed that Andrew was placed in Jackson's home despite repeated suspicions of abuse that Riverside County Child Protective Services failed to investigate adequately.

Sherman recalled one witness who noticed problems in Jackson's home and reported it to her supervisor but did no follow-up.

"Until CPS gets their act together and recognizes that it's everybody's department and everybody's job, there will be a group of Andrews," the judge said.

An autopsy determined that Andrew suffered a fractured rib, punctured stomach wall and swollen brain, all caused by multiple blows. Andrew's cause of death was fatal child abuse syndrome, reflecting the combination of injuries.

Andrew died on July 19, 2000, and Jackson told police that he had fallen from a slide at the park the day before.

But the pathologist who performed the autopsy said a fall could not account for the massive injuries he saw on the child's body.

Jackson did not testify, but her lawyers tried to pin the blame on her husband, who was not charged with any crime.

Jurors agreed with prosecutor Michael Hestrin that Jackson was the primary caretaker and her husband was often absent.

San Bernardino County social services officials had placed Andrew in Jackson's home after the child was declared a ward of the court.

By the time Andrew arrived, other children had been removed amid suspicions of abuse. Two toddler brothers living with Jackson when Andrew died showed signs of malnutrition and one of them had fractured ribs, witnesses testified.

But despite the suspected pattern of abuse in Jackson's home over several years, she maintained her foster care license until the day Andrew died.

Social services officials later acknowledged a communications breakdown in the foster care system failed to protect Andrew and others. They said they took steps to overhaul the foster care program to improve screening of prospective foster parents and staff training.

Caption:

2000/THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE / Cynthia Jackson was sentenced to 25 years to life for the first-degree murder conviction

2003 Dec 11