| For Immediate Release Case # 05HF1371 January 11, 2008 |
Contact: Susan Kang Schroeder
|
BABYSITTER GETS 25 TO LIFE
FOR MURDERING 9-MONTH-OLD BABY GIRL
WHOSE PARENTS SHE MET AT CHURCH
SANTA ANA – A babysitter was sentenced today to 25 years to life in prison for murdering her neighbor’s 9-month-old baby girl, Nicole, by inflicting several separate blows to the baby’s head. Sunyhe Choi, 32, Irvine, was convicted by a jury October 2, 2007 of murder and child abuse causing death.
Choi is married and has a 4 year old child. In July of 2005, Choi began baby-sitting Nicole for Seung Jeong, father, and Kyung Min, mother, who lived in the same Irvine apartment complex near Culver and the 405 freeway. Jeong and Min also had a 4-year-old child who was not present during the killing.
On August 1, 2005 at about 3:30 p.m., Choi called her husband for help while she was taking care of baby Nicole. Choi’s husband came home and called 9-1-1 approximately nine minutes later. Emergency personnel arrived to find that baby Nicole was cold and not breathing with a large red bruise of the front of her head. They attempted to revive the infant for 45 minutes while in transit and at the hospital, but Nicole was pronounced dead at the Irvine Medical Center. A week earlier, Nicole’s mother noticed a bruise on Nicole, which Choi attributed to an “accidental fall.”
“Baby Nicole’s life was cut down by the defendant before Nicole could tell her mom what the defendant had done to her, and before she could even take her first step,” stated Senior Deputy District Attorney Steve McGreevy. “The defendant refuses to accept responsibility for what she did and deserves to spend the rest of her life in prison.”
Senior Deputy District Attorney Steve McGreevy of the Homicide Unit prosecuted this case.
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