Plea deal calls for life in day-care center sex case

Wednesday, April 14, 2004 | 9:05 a.m.

A former child care worker arrested on sexual assault and child pornography charges signed a guilty plea agreement Tuesday that will require a minimum prison sentence of life with the possibility of parole after 30 years.

Kimya Winbush, 27, will formally plead guilty to six of the 40 charges against him before District Judge Valerie Vega on April 20.

The plea agreement charges Winbush with one count of sexual assault with a minor under 14, one count of lewdness with a minor under 14, three counts of using a minor in the production of pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.

The original complaint had included additional counts for each offense, Chief Deputy District Attorney Doug Herndon said, but would have required Winbush's victims to testify.

Herndon, the man in charge of the district attorney's special victims unit, said prosecutors agreed to the plea bargain "to make it easy on the kids."

"There are plenty of charges without the children having to sit there and remember everything that happened," Herndon said.

Winbush was represented by a lawyer from the public defender's office, Brigid Hoffman, who refused to talk about how Winbush benefited from the plea deal.

The charges in the plea agreement are based on the physical evidence police recovered in Winbush's home, including a videotape showing Winbush sexually assaulting two young boys from his neighborhood. A former neighbor in the 6100 block of Babson Avenue where Winbush lived found the videotape in a trash can and the tape wound up being turned over to police.

The charges are also based on explicit photographs taken of children at Creative Beginnings day care center, 5345 E. Bonanza Road, where Winbush was an employee for two years, Herndon said.

Herndon said there were at least six or seven children victimized by Winbush, ranging in age from 6 to 11 years old. There may have been more, even younger children, but many of the children who were photographed at the day care center are shown from behind and are not recognizable, Herndon said.

Five of the counts carry possible life sentences. The plea agreement mandates that the sexual assault and lewdness counts be consecutive life sentences, Herndon said. The earliest Winbush could be paroled would be after 30 years.

That was good news to some of the parents of the victims.

"He deserves to be put in jail for life," Angie Reyes, one of the mothers, said. "What kind of man would do this to these kids?"

Reyes said her 5-year-old son is in counseling, and she is praying that he will be able to put the incident past him.

"I want to set him free. I want him to move on with his life," Reyes said outside the courtroom.

Reyes said she and at least one other victim are considering suing the day care center for their alleged negligence in allowing Winbush to victimize the children.

Mark Henness, attorney for one victim who plans to sue the center, said they want to "hold them accountable."

"It's unconscionable that this would happen to anyone's children," Henness said. "(The lawsuit) is about creating awareness, creating accountability and hopefully preventing it in the future."

Phil Irish, the owner of Creative Beginnings, could not be reached for comment.