Freedom May End for Mother Who Killed Child

Last year, Josephine Mesa admitted beating her toddler son to death, then walked free from a Vista courtroom. Now, however, Mesa may finally go to prison because of a weekend spent with a girlfriend during which she was considered AWOL from probation.

In Vista Superior Court on Tuesday, Mesa, 20, admitted violating her probation by spending an unreported weekend at a friend’s house rather than with the family the court had ordered her to stay with. Sentencing was set for Aug. 24, at the request of Mesa’s attorney. Deputy Public Defender John Jimenez said he believes Mesa’s fate is best postponed until after a hearing in Juvenile Court, at which she will ask to be reunited with another child she gave birth to two months ago.

Mesa was arrested in May, 1986, several days after scavengers found the battered body of a 23-month-old baby in a Dumpster behind her Oceanside apartment. Mesa, then 18 and pregnant, lied to police, telling them the infant belonged to another woman. Her husband, Paul, a 20-year-old Marine lance corporal, also lied, telling officers he did not recognize the photographs they showed him of the dead child.

But, alone in a police interrogation room, Mesa later confided the details of the killing to her husband, and the conversation was recorded by a hidden microphone. Both were arrested, and, hours later, Mesa gave birth to her third son.

In January, 1987, Mesa pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and admitted beating her son, Paul Anthony, with a bathroom plunger after she caught him drinking out of the toilet. Through her attorney and with the use of a dramatic videotaped interview while she was under the influence of a “truth serum”--sodium amytal--Mesa told the court of a life filled with rape and abuse at the hands of strangers and relatives. Superior Court Judge Donald Martinson rejected the prosecutor’s arguments for an 11-year prison term and released Mesa on five years’ probation, with her promise to divorce her husband, attend counseling, get a job and return to school.

Since then, Mesa has trod a fine line of marginal cooperation, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Sally Penso.

Shortly after she was placed on probation, Mesa moved in with a new boyfriend. Her subsequent pregnancy went undetected by her probation officer and her therapist, both of whom saw her on a regular basis, Penso said. Upon learning that Mesa had given birth again, Martinson ordered her to undergo periodic pregnancy tests, and the baby was put in the custody of the county’s Child Protective Services.

Even then, Mesa was not technically in violation of her probation, Penso said, noting, “It’s really hard to order someone not to get pregnant.” Now, however, Mesa’s failure to report a weekend’s absence to her probation officer may have been the move that will take her freedom from her. The probation office, caught in a logistical trap in which it cannot recommend local jail time for anyone who has already spent a year in jail--which Mesa did while awaiting trial on the murder charge--has recommended a six-year prison term.

Attorney Confident She Will Remain Free

Defense attorney Jimenez, however, is confident that his client will remain free. “She’s done everything that she was supposed to, otherwise, she’d be in prison already,” Jimenez said. The most important thing for Mesa now, he said, is to move on with her life and to enter a supervised reunification program with her youngest child, who is now in the father’s custody.

“She’s not a danger to this present baby,” Jimenez said. “I think she can be a normal, regular mother, now that she’s out of the influence of (her ex-husband).

“I think he caused the death of the baby. He drove her to whatever insanity caused the act.”

Penso, however, took a dimmer view of Mesa’s character.

“She’s the one that admitted to killing her child, and she’s the one who weaved this fantastic lie for the police before they unraveled who the child really belonged to,” said Penso. “I think she’s proven by her own past and present deeds that she’s not that trustworthy of a person.”