MOM SENTENCED FOR TODDLER'S MURDER WOMAN GETS 25 YEARS TO LIFE AFTER JUDGE CITES 'DEPRAVITY' OF CASE.

Byline: KAREN MAESHIRO

Staff Writer

A Lancaster woman was sentenced Tuesday to 25 years to life in prison for the murder of her toddler son, who was beaten, poisoned with an over-the-counter antihistamine, suffocated and, after he was dead, burned in a tamale pot.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor said in his 20 years on the bench very few cases reached "this level of depravity and horror" as the circumstances of this case, said Jane Robison, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

Sylvia Rolon, 44, was convicted in Los Angeles Superior Court in January of second-degree murder, assault on a child causing death and child abuse.

Rolon's boyfriend, Anthony Bill Lopez, 39, was convicted in June 2006 of torturing and murdering 22-month-old Isaac Lopez, and he was later sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Rolon's attorney, Edward Murphy, said he believed his client's conviction will be overturned on appeal and that she will get a new trial.

"Normally, I don't feel this way about convictions. I don't this strongly, but I do in this case because I really believe the court made an erroneous ruling in denying the motion to dismiss the murder charge after the prosecution rested and giving a jury instruction that they could find her guilty as an aider and abettor even though she essentially did nothing," Murphy said after the sentencing.

Prosecutor Mary Murray declined to comment.

Authorities said the child was killed April 21, 2003, at Rolon's Lancaster condominium and remained there about a day before being taken away by Lopez in his van.

Lopez drove to Bassett in the east San Gabriel Valley to visit his friend and was found two days later with the child's body in the van, parked at Bassett Park.

Rolon's six other children, ranging then in age from 13 years to 4 months, were placed in protective custody. Her four oldest children were from other relationships, authorities said.

The youngest three, including Isaac, were from a relationship with Lopez, who had been living in Des Moines, Iowa, but returned to Lancaster two or three weeks before Isaac was killed.

A confidential county auditor-control report faulted social workers for poor oversight, incompetence and numerous policy violations in returning the boy to his parents' care.

Lopez and Rolon had at least a 10-year history with the Department of Children and Family Services, with Lopez being convicted of spousal abuse and of abusing one of Rolon's sons.

However, a series of policy violations and mistakes -- including a case worker failing to read the family's entire history of child abuse and neglect -- led to Rolon's seven children being returned to her, an internal county audit concluded.

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