A 32-year-old woman accused of fatally stabbing her three daughters in 2014 waived her right Monday to a trial by jury.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ricardo Ocampo will hear and decide the case, which is scheduled to begin Nov. 16. Carol Ann Coronado has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.
Coronado allegedly tried to kill her mother, who found the children’s bodies May 20, 2014, at the family’s home in an unincorporated area near Carson.
The indictment against Coronado includes special circumstance allegations of multiple murders and personal use of a knife as a deadly weapon, but prosecutors have decided not to seek the death penalty.
The girls’ grandmother went to the house after having a troubling telephone conversation with her daughter that afternoon.
Coronado’s mother ran out of the house screaming after seeing the girls – – Sophia, 2, Yazmine, 16 months, and Xenia, 2 months — stabbed to death and lined up in order of their ages.
The father of the children, who was outside working on a car, then called 911.
A neighbor said Coronado was covered in blood and naked except for a blanket when she was taken away by sheriff’s deputies. She was initially hospitalized with self-inflicted stab wounds, then transferred to a jail ward at Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center.
Several knives were taken from the home as evidence.
At Coronado’s original arraignment, her defense attorney said his client suffered from postpartum depression and that her family was unsure what to look for or how to deal with the illness.
Coronado was briefly in the Army after high school, but her military career was cut short by an injury, according to police.
— City News Service