SANTA ROSA, Calif. (AP) — A Northern California man was sentenced to 11 years in prison for the 2016 drowning of his 4-year-old daughter in the baptismal pool of a Catholic church.
Authorities say Gerardo Mendoza had been smoking methamphetamine for three days and began believing his two youngest children were “being attacked by evil” when he took them to St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in the small California wine country city of Healdsburg.
The Press Democrat reports the 11-year sentence issued by a judge Wednesday was part of a negotiated plea to manslaughter that Mendoza agreed to.
