BOY'S SISTER DENIES MOM LET HIM DIE : SMOKE HALTED RESCUE, TEEN SAYS.

Byline: Bhavna Mistry Daily News Staff Writer

LANCASTER - The 16-year-old daughter of a woman accused of leaving her son to die in a burning mobile home testified Thursday that her mother never reached the bathroom where the boy was later found.

Lynda Olney testified that her mother, Catherine ``Paula'' Fimbres, used a fingernail to open the locked door of the boy's bedroom, took two steps inside the smoky room, retreated to find a flashlight and was ordered outside by her husband.

``My mother woke up seconds after I did,'' Olney said. ``We both ran to the kids' room and were trying to open the door.''

After they opened the bedroom door, Olney testified that she could see nothing in the room but smoke. Her mother stepped inside but came out to reach for a flashlight, she said.

``Then my dad woke up,'' Olney said. ``He ran and pushed my mom out.''

The question of where exactly Fimbres went in the burning mobile home is a key one for the prosecution.

Her mentally retarded 9-year-old son, Luis Jaime Fimbres, was found by firefighters critically burned in the bathroom that connected to the bedroom he shared with a younger brother. The 9-year-old boy died a short time later at a hospital.

The prosecution says the mother found him screaming in the bathroom but shut the door and left him to die.

The prosecution case is based on the testimony of an acquaintance and on what investigators call inconsistencies after the fire between the woman's account and her husband's account of her actions.

According to court papers, investigators said Catherine Fimbres told them she tried to get into the boys' bedroom but found the door locked. But the court papers say her husband, also named Luis Fimbres, told investigators his wife was inside the bedroom, standing about three feet from the door to the adjoining bathroom, and screaming ``Jaime! Jaime!'' for their son.

The suspect's husband refused to testify during the preliminary hearing, citing his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

According to investigators who testified Wednesday, the husband told them he had to kick in the bedroom door. Deputy Jonathan Stanbook said Luis Fimbres told him he heard his wife's screams, went to the boys' bedroom, found the door locked from the inside and kicked it open.

The preliminary hearing, which started April 10, is expected to continue today. At its conclusion, Antelope Municipal Court Judge Pamela Rogers will decide whether there is enough evidence to hold the 37-year-old mother for arraignment in Superior Court.

She is charged with murder and child endangerment involving great bodily harm in the death of her son.

The boy's death Feb. 3 was not originally considered homicide. Authorities believe he started the fire himself while playing with a cigarette lighter in his bedroom.

But then an acquaintance came forward and said that, at the boy's funeral, the mother said she found her son screaming in the bathroom as flames spread in the adjoining bedroom but shut the door and left him.