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A 21-year-old woman has pleaded not guilty to a charge of murder in connection with the death of her 19-day-old son in the unincorporated Florence-Firestone area, authorities said Wednesday.
Calixta Landa was arrested on Friday, the day before her son Sebastian Landa died at a hospital of blunt force trauma to his brain, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Detectives responded to the hospital on Thursday after staff reported the child had possibly been subject to abuse, the Sheriff’s Information Bureau reported.
They spoke with Landa, who “admitted to abusing the child,” according to a sheriff’s department statement.
She was arrested and Sebastian was pronounced dead at the hospital the following night, officials said.
Landa pleaded not guilty Tuesday to murder and assault on a child causing death, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors say family members saw the child, pale and limp, in his bassinette on Thursday.
The boy was taken to a hospital, “where medical officials determined that the child was underweight and suffering from multiple injuries,” according to the district attorney’s office.
Charges against Landa were filed on Tuesday.
Landa is being held in lieu of $2 million bail at the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood and is next due in court in Norwalk on Aug. 2 for a preliminary hearing setting, according to the sheriff’s department and district attorney’s office.
She faces a maximum possible sentence of 25 years to life in state prison if convicted as charged.
–City News Service
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