Murder charges dismissed against Central Valley woman in connection to pregnancy loss
Murder charges were dismissed Thursday against Chelsea Becker in connection to her stillbirth in Kings County.
Attorneys called the dismissal of charges a victory, but warned that women in Kings County could still be at risk of getting arrested in connection to a pregnancy loss.
Becker, who spent 16 months in pre-trial detention, was released on no bail in March after a long legal battle. Her bail was initially set at $5 million, and was later reduced to $2 million in February 2020.
Becker was charged with murder after her son, Zachariah Joseph Campos, died in her womb on Sept. 10, 2019. Becker, 25 at the time, later admitted she had used methamphetamine during her pregnancy as she had during previous pregnancies.
Attorneys with the National Advocates for Pregnant Women, representing Becker, had argued the state’s murder statute did not apply to women who experience a pregnancy loss, and described the prosecution as “unlawful.”
Dan Arshack, one of the lawyers representing Becker, said Kings County Superior Court Judge Robert S. Burns didn’t dismiss the charges based on the “inapplicability of the murder statute to women who have stillbirths,” which he described as “disappointing.” Burns, he said, dismissed the charges based on the failure by prosecutors to present evidence on “implied malice.”
“The judge found that there was absolutely no evidence provided by the prosecution that would have supported the conclusion that Chelsea Becker had a subjective understanding that the ingestion of methamphetamine could have caused the death of her fetus,” Arshack told The Bee. “The prosecution presented no evidence that she had that subjective understanding, but there’s a reason that she didn’t have that subjective understanding. The first and most important reason is, there is absolutely no scientific evidence, none, that taking methamphetamine while pregnant causes stillbirth.”
DA will decide next step
Philip Esbenshade, executive assistant district attorney, said his office disagrees with the conclusion in Thursday’s hearing to dismiss the charges against Becker.
“It is the opinion of our office that sufficient evidence was indeed presented at the preliminary hearing to hold Ms. Becker to answer for trial,” he told The Bee. “The judge who presided over that preliminary examination, upon hearing that evidence and considering arguments from both sides, did find such sufficient evidence existed. Judge Burns apparently disagrees with that finding.”
He said his office will “review the record and transcript of today’s proceedings and determine how we will move forward.”
Prosecutors in court documents filed on the case in 2020 cited two research studies, and said “it is well documented within the realm of public knowledge that a mother’s methamphetamine use can cause serious harm or death to a viable unborn child.”
The researchers behind the studies quickly pushed back by saying prosecutor’s conclusion of their research was “factually wrong.” They said there is no clear scientific link between prenatal methamphetamine exposure and serious harm or death to an unborn child.
Attorneys also argued that the state’s murder law only applies to third parties who attack a pregnant woman and cause her to lose her pregnancy, and that the law can’t be used to punish any action to which the mother of the fetus consents to. Former California Attorney General and now Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra in November filed a brief in support of Becker, arguing she shouldn’t be charged with murder in connection to her son’s stillbirth.
Lynn Paltrow, executive director for the National Advocates for Pregnant Women, said Thursday’s decision was a “wonderful victory” following a long legal battle against “the totally inappropriate attempt to use California’s murder law to punish somebody ... because they experienced a stillbirth.”
However, since Becker’s charges were dismissed on the lack of evidence as opposed to the inapplicability of the murder law, Paltrow said the case “certainly is likely to be interpreted by at least on prosecutor — Fagundes — as leaving the door open to arresting more pregnant women who experience pregnancy losses.”
Keith Fagundes is the Kings County district attorney.
It is estimated that 15% to 20% of pregnancies end in miscarriages or stillbirths, Paltrow said.
“So every women, at least in Kings County, where Fagundes is the DA should be concerned,” she told The Bee. “But we will be watching, the National Advocates for Pregnant Women will be watching, and we will challenge any future attempts to misuse the law and to lock up women who can’t guarantee their pregnancy is going to term.”
Paltrow said cases such as Becker’s undermine public health and maternal and child health. The case sends a message that women who want to end their pregnancies can use methamphetamine.
“It’s incredibly irresponsible to suggest that it is an effective way to end your pregnancy,” she said.
The public funding that went into this case, she said, instead could have been used to support substance abuse treatment. Attorneys and experts have said the Central Valley is ill equipped to support pregnant women who have substance use disorders.
Another case
The case of Adora Perez is identical to that of Becker’s. Perez’s case ended in a voluntary manslaughter plea. Soon after she filed a motion to withdraw her plea.
Perez, also from Kings County, was given the “upper term” of 11 years in prison, and was denied the lesser term of probation because Judge Burns believed that at her age she could still get pregnant and use drugs.
Becker’s attorneys also said she was kept in pre-trial detention to prevent her from using drugs and getting pregnant again.
Thursday’s decision won’t have an impact on Perez’s case.
“It doesn’t change anything as far as Adora Perez is concerned,” Arshack said. “Adora’s case turns exclusively on the applicability of the murder statute to a woman who has a stillbirth.”
This story was originally published May 20, 2021 at 11:18 AM.
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