By Dustin Brown
A Long Island City woman was convicted Friday of manslaughter charges in the 1998 death of her young daughter, who lapsed into a coma after she was beaten by her mother.
Eva Campos, 32, of 52-18 35th Ave., faced a top charge of second-degree murder= but the jury voted instead to convict her on a lesser charge of first-degree manslaughter, a spokeswoman for Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said. She faces 12 1/2 to 25 years in prison when she is sentenced next month.
“The attack by a mother of her helpless and defenseless child was both heartbreaking and brutal and warrants imposition of the maximum penalty allowed by law,” Brown said in a release. “That is the recommendation my prosecutors intend to make at sentencing.”
Prosecutors alleged Campos struck her 5-year-old daughter Rosario Ladino more than 100 times with the heel of a sandal July 25, 1998, then dunked her head repeatedly under water and allowed her to lapse into a coma and die without seeking medical attention.
Whereas prosecutors would have had to prove Campos intended to kill her daughter for the jury to come back with a murder conviction, the manslaughter charge means she had only intended to “cause serious physical injury,” the DA’s spokeswoman said.
Campos had already been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison after she was convicted of murder charges two years ago, but an appeals court overturned that ruling in January because of a procedural issue involving jury selection.
Brown said Campos had a history of beating and abusing her children.
Campos’ son, Oscar Ladino, who was 6 years old at the time of his sister’s death, testified Oct. 3 and described in detail how his mother hit his sister repeatedly, shoved her head under water and dragged her by the hair before she fell into a coma and died, the New York Post reported.
Her husband Laurentino Ladino was sentenced to time served in 1999 after pleading guilty to endangering the welfare of a child for failing to stop the cycle of abuse.
City welfare officials were first alerted to the alleged pattern of child abuse in May 1993 when Rosario, only 3 months old at the time, was treated at Woodhull Hospital with a broken femur and fractured skull. The children were taken away from their parents after that incident, but were returned to them two years later. The case was closed in 1996.
Oscar and another younger sister who was 8 months old at the time of Rosario’s death have been in foster care for the past four years, published reports said.
Reach reporter Dustin Brown by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 154.
