CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : BAKERSFIELD : Mother Sentenced for Starving Child
- Share via
A Ridgecrest woman convicted of starving her infant daughter to death was sentenced to 15 years to life in state prison. Tonnette Rae Lee, 29, was convicted of second-degree murder in the Dec. 8, 1988, death of 2-month-old Janelle Lee. The Kern County Superior Court jury also convicted the child’s father, James Lowell Lee, 38, but his sentencing was continued until April 16. Deputy Dist. Atty. Terry P. Pelton said the infant’s weight fell from 5 pounds, 6 ounces at birth on Oct. 1, 1988, to 3 pounds, 5 ounces when she died.
More From the Los Angeles Times
Podcasts
The latest effort is coming from the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. They just announced a $3 million program in conjunction with some nonprofits groups to test and clean the soil at homes still standing in the areas impacted by the Eaton Fire.
The Hillside Strangler murders terrorized Los Angeles in the late 1970s. The killers were a pair of sadistic cousins. One confessed. The other was set to stand trial—until L.A. prosecutors flinched.
Hosts Fidel Martínez and Suzy Exposito sit down with Dr. Vanessa J. Díaz, professor of Chicano and Latino Studies at Loyola Marymount University and co-author of P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance.
