People v. Hines CA5

FACTS

On December 16, 2013, at approximately 3:15 a.m., Kern County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to an apartment on a report of a child not breathing and found an unconscious 18-month-old male child who appeared to have stopped breathing. The deputies spoke to 17-year-old Hines, who informed them she was the child’s babysitter. Hines initially told the deputies that she found the child lying unconscious behind a couch but that she did not know how he got there. The deputies also interviewed a witness who lives in an apartment at the complex where the child was found. The witness stated she was by her car, located four to five feet from Hines’s bedroom window, when she heard a baby crying and what sounded like the baby being punched in the back three times. The baby immediately stopped crying. The child was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. Hines was contacted again and interviewed. Hines denied hitting the child or killing him and requested to speak with the child’s mother. At Hines’s request, the child’s mother was allowed into the interview room. In response to questioning by the child’s mother, Hines eventually admitted hitting the child in the back,…