Sunnyvale Mom Charged in Child's Death

Santa Clara County prosecutors are charging a 27-year-old woman with the murder of her toddler in Sunnyvale.

On Friday, Sunnyvale detectives found the 8-month-old child, who police initially said was 2 years old, in the bedroom of an apartment on San Aleso Ave.

When crews arrived around 2:30 p.m. the child was not breathing and did not have a pulse, according to the department. At the time police said there were no obvious signs of trama. Police said they found two plastic bags near the infant's head. The medical examiner has ruled the cause of death as asphyxiation.

At about the same time the baby was found, emergency personnel received reports of a despondent woman on the Mathilda Avenue overpass above Highway 101.

Sunnyvale officers and fire crews located the woman, later identified as Leticia Serna, grabbed her and pulled her to safety as she was climbing over the railing.

Serna was determined to be the mother of the child.

She was taken to a hospital for medical evaluation and then was taken into custody on suspicion of murder.

Serna had her first court appearance Tuesday. She faces one count of murder and one count of assault on a child with force likely to produce great bodily injury or death, district attorney's spokeswoman Lisa McCrary said.

Bay City News contributed to this report.

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