La Jolla realtor gets jail for scratching babies

SAN DIEGO — A prominent La Jolla real estate agent who scratched eight babies in her neighborhood after befriending their mothers was sentenced Tuesday.

Lisa Hench, 45, was ordered to spend two years in local custody. She was ordered to turn herself in at Las Colinas Women’s Detention Center on March 18.

Smyth said Hench could serve her sentence in a work furlough program if she has a qualifying job. In that case, she would go to her workplace during the day but return to a locked facility at night. She could also continue her mental health treatment, which would not be possible in county jail, the judge said.

Hench pleaded guilty last month to eight misdemeanor counts of corporal injury on a child. She admitted scratching the children — ages 3 months to 19 months — at different locations in the fall of 2009, said Deputy District Attorney Patrick Ojeil.

Hench cried during most of the hearing. Prior to sentencing, she offered a teary apology to the parents of two of the victims, who were in the courtroom, but she offered no explanation for the attacks.

“Having my own children makes me feel even works about what I did,” she said. “I can’t imagine being in your shoes — and I was the cause of it.”

Hench said she had been in therapy ever since she was arrested.

Lainie Carswell, the mother of one of the babies, told Judge Michael Smyth that Hench befriended her so she could hold her baby and abuse her. She said she didn’t believe Hench’s apologies were sincere.

“During this 14-month process, she hasn’t shown one ounce of remorse,” Carswell said. “I’m not comfortable with her in my community.”

Smyth said that the “extraordinary level of depravity” shown by Hench’s attacks required punishment as well as psychological help. He said Hench made no effort to address her predatory behavior until she was caught.

In addition to two years in jail, Smyth ordered Hench to pay a $1,000 fine. He ordered that she have no contact with children other than her own without parental supervision and to have absolutely no physical contact with other children.

Hench is expected to serve a year of her two-year sentence, with credit for good behavior, said Patrick Ojeil. After that, the defendant will be on probation for four years.

“This is extremely bizarre behavior,” the prosecutor said. “We all want to know why she did it. We’ll never know.”

Arrest Made In 1975 Massage Parlor Slaying

SAN DIEGO — Authorities announced an arrest Friday in connection with a 1975 killing at a massage parlor in a then-seedy downtown area now known as the Gaslamp Quarter.

San Diego police detectives traveled to Parchman, Miss., on Thursday to take custody of 57-year-old Leon Johnson, who had been arrested on a warrant charging him with murdering 27-year-old Luz Borrayo in 1975, San Diego Police Department Lt. Ernie Herbert said.

Borrayo’s body was found inside the Twilight Massage Parlor on Nov. 22, 1975 in the 600 block of Fifth Avenue. The victim had been beaten and strangled.

Two years ago, investigators with the SDPD Cold Case Team reopened the case and resubmitted “viable evidentiary items” to the department’s crime lab for renewed analysis. Those reviews resulted in the identification of Johnson as Borrayo’s suspected killer, according to Herbert.

Herbert declined to disclose the type of evidence that allegedly implicated the suspect.

Johnson is being held in county jail in downtown San Diego pending an arraignment scheduled for Monday afternoon.

San Diego Domestic Violence Charges

Penal codes associated with domestic violence

PC 273.5. (a) Any person who willfully inflicts upon a person who is his or her spouse, former spouse, cohabitant, former cohabitant, or the mother or father of his or her child, corporal injury resulting in a traumatic condition, is guilty of a felony, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for two, three, or four years, or in a county jail for not more than one year, or by a fine of up to six thousand dollars ($6,000) or by both that fine and imprisonment. (b) Holding oneself out to be the husband or wife of the person with whom one is cohabiting is not necessary to constitute cohabitation as the term is used in this section. (c) As used in this section, “traumatic condition” means a condition of the body, such as a wound or external or internal injury, whether of a minor or serious nature, caused by a physical force. (d) For the purpose of this section, a person shall be considered the father or mother of another person’s child if the alleged male parent is presumed the natural father under Sections 7611 and 7612 of the Family Code. (e) (1) Any person convicted of violating this section for acts occurring within seven years of a previous conviction under subdivision (a), or subdivision (d) of Section 243, or Section 243.4, 244, 244.5, or 245, shall be punished by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than one year, or by imprisonment in the state prison for two, four, or five years, or by both imprisonment and a fine of up to ten thousand dollars ($10,000). (2) Any person convicted of a violation of this section for acts occurring within seven years of a previous conviction under subdivision (e) of Section 243 shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for two, three, or four years, or in a county jail for not more than one year, or by a fine of up to ten thousand dollars ($10,000), or by both that imprisonment and fine. (f) If probation is granted to any person convicted under subdivision (a), the court shall impose probation consistent with the provisions of Section 1203.097. (g) If probation is granted, or the execution or imposition of a sentence is suspended, for any defendant convicted under subdivision (a) who has been convicted of any prior offense specified in subdivision (e), the court shall impose one of the following conditions of probation: (1) If the defendant has suffered one prior conviction within the previous seven years for a violation of any offense specified in subdivision (e), it shall be a condition thereof, in addition to the provisions contained in Section 1203.097, that he or she be imprisoned in a county jail for not less than 15 days.

PC 243 (e) (1) When a battery is committed against a spouse, a person with whom the defendant is cohabiting, a person who is the parent of the defendant’s child, former spouse, fiance, or fiancee, or a person with whom the defendant currently has, or has previously had, a dating or engagement relationship, the battery is punishable by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars ($2,000), or by imprisonment in a county jail for a period of not more than one year, or by both that fine and imprisonment. If probation is granted, or the execution or imposition of the sentence is suspended, it shall be a condition thereof that the defendant participate in, for no less than one year, and successfully complete, a batterer’s treatment program, as defined in Section 1203.097, or if none is available, another appropriate counseling program designated by the court. However, this provision shall not be construed as requiring a city, a county, or a city and county to provide a new program or higher level of service as contemplated by Section 6 of Article XIIIB of the California Constitution.