Father pleads guilty in child’s death

Bill Gang

Thursday, Sept. 30, 1999 | 11:41 a.m.

In the course of a year Lawrence Motti went from being a hero to a jail inmate charged with murder in the child-abuse death of his 2-month-old daughter.

Now, 2 1/2 years later, the case finally has been resolved in a plea bargain that will give the 30-year-old defendant a chance at probation.

Motti pleaded guilty Tuesday to child abuse and voluntary manslaughter although he did so under a legal provision that does not require him to admit actual responsibility for the crime.

The baby's death occurred almost a year after Motti, a Sahara hotel-casino security guard, was praised as a hero for the shooting death of a man who had just murdered his ex-wife in the resort's employee parking lot.

Motti and another guard witnessed 56-year-old Gordon Bishop shoot Ruthie Green-Bishop, 45, and then turn the gun toward the guards. Motti fired five shots and killed Bishop.

But a few months later, Motti gave up that job and divorced his wife, although he was again living with her -- baby-sitting their three children -- while reconciliation was being attempted.

Elizabeth Motti testified at a 1997 preliminary hearing that when she learned the baby had stopped breathing she called 911 while the defendant performed CPR.

Motti, who is free on his own recognizance, admitted that part of his reason for accepting the plea bargain was to avoid the possibility of a mandatory life prison sentence and no parole for 20 years should he be convicted of first-degree murder at a trial.

That trial had been set for Oct. 4 in District Judge Michael Douglas' courtroom.

When the judge questioned why the plea bargain was offered, Deputy District Attorney Doug Herndon explained that all of the injuries to Frances Motti -- including a skull fracture -- occurred at the same time, which indicates there was no pattern of abuse.

He said that may indicate a "sudden outburst of anger" that would put the death into the realm of voluntary manslaughter.

The prosecutor added that difficulty in getting doctors to commit to appear at trial to testify also contributed to the negotiated end to the case.

With the lapse in time since the girl's death, Herndon said it was "time to get closure in the case."

While Herndon admitted that instances of child abuse leading to death can be charged as murder, "it doesn't mean every defendant deserves a life sentence with no parole for 20 years."

He said the district attorney's office has the discretion to plea bargain a case for what is "fair, appropriate and equitable."

Motti originally claimed the fatal head injury on Jan. 7, 1997, occurred when one of his two sons -- then ages 2 and 3 -- pulled the infant out of a swing and she hit her head on a fireplace hearth.

But doctors determined the injury could not have resulted that way, and bite marks on the baby's body were determined to have been inflicted by Motti.

Although he pleaded guilty, the deal will allow Motti to spend the holidays with his family before being sentenced on Jan. 12.

Douglas could sentence Motti to 10 to 30 years in prison, but the plea bargain calls for prosecutors not to seek more than an 8- to 30-year sentence that would keep Motti behind bars for eight years before he would be eligible for parole.

Probation, however, is also a possibility although Douglas noted that to even be eligible for a probationary sentence Motti would have to get a psychological evaluation declaring he is not a danger to the health, safety or morals of other people.