Jurors Begin Deliberating Woman’s Fate in Baby Death : Courts: The former PTA president’s defense attorney accuses the prosecutor of exaggerating the evidence by using ‘L.A. Law’-style theatrics.

After a nearly two-month-long trial that the defense attorney likened to a movie production, a Van Nuys Superior Court jury today is to begin deliberating the fate of a Reseda baby-sitter and former PTA president accused of killing a baby in her care two years ago.

Indeed, the trial of Debra Suzanne Cummings, 34, has featured dramatic moments in which former friends recanted earlier sworn statements favorable to her, and her son testified that he had seen his mother hit other children and make racist remarks.

Her son’s entire testimony was stricken, however, because he made a reference to a second child his mother is accused of killing.

In his closing argument Wednesday, defense attorney Joe Ingber accused the prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Carol Fisch, of introducing a cast of witnesses with the aim of exaggerating the evidence against his client.

Cummings, a former PTA president at Shirley Avenue Elementary School, was baby-sitting 9-month-old Kevin Young in her Reseda home on June 15, 1990, when the child suffered two fatal skull fractures. The child died the next day after life support equipment was disconnected.

“Maybe it wasn’t enough for the prosecution just to argue the case,” Ingber said. The prosecution had to “get a little ‘L.A. Law’ in here, add some subplots.”

He said Fisch attacked his client’s character by persuading previously favorable witnesses to change their story instead of sticking to the facts in the case.

Ingber himself engaged in some theater when he pulled a doll out of a bag and whacked its head against a podium to demonstrate the way the child would have had to be struck if the jury was to believe the prosecutor’s story.

But Fisch told the jurors the case was not scripted. If it was, she said, “it would have had a happy ending. It would have had Kevin waking up the next morning.”

Cummings broke down in tears on the witness stand while denying the charge against her. She testified that Kevin fell against a coffee table while playing. However, a coroner’s report said the injuries were inconsistent with a fall and that it appeared the infant had been hit with a hand or fist.

During her testimony, Cummings accused Fisch of deliberately tearing her family apart, and Los Angeles Police Detective Larry Dolley of carrying out a vendetta against her.

If convicted of second-degree murder, Cummings faces a possible sentence of 15 years to life in prison.

Cummings also is charged with involuntary manslaughter in the March, 1990, death of 14-month-old Matthew Cooley, who died after losing consciousness while at a park with Cummings. A preliminary hearing on that charge is scheduled to begin July 24.

The investigation of the earlier death began after Cummings was arrested in the death of Young.