Mother Convicted in Twins Death Called Child Abuser

Beverly Jean Ernst, convicted of child endangerment in the deaths of her twin infants in Garden Grove last July, has a history of cruel and abusive treatment of her other two children, according to testimony at her sentencing hearing Friday.

One former family boarder said she even put a gun to the head of her son, who was 3 years old at the time, then called the child a foul name and threatened to kill him.

Ernst, 26, her right arm in a cast because of a recent fall, wept and groaned aloud as the boarder, Joseph S. Taback, and her own brother, Stephen E. Ernst, recounted several incidents in which they said they saw her beat her young son and flaunt her drug-culture life style in front of her children.

Beverly Jean Ernst was convicted two months ago of two counts of felony child endangerment for leaving her 3-month-old twins, Adam and Ashley, unattended in her car, with the windows rolled up, for five hours on July 20, 1986. The children died from heat stroke, according to medical testimony. She faces a maximum sentence of more than seven years in prison.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Jean H. Rheinheimer recessed the hearing until July 31 to give Deputy Public Defender Dennis P. O’Connell more time to investigate the child-abuse allegations against his client.

According to court records, Ernst was twice reported to Orange County’s child abuse registry. In addition, she was arrested twice by police in 1985, once after she threatened to kill herself and her children and the second time after police said she assaulted her mother and bit a policeman on the finger, records show.

Her two surviving children, the son, now 7, and a daughter, 5, live in the Midwest with Ernst’s ex-husband’s parents.