AUBURN – The parents of an Auburn baby girl who was found in what police described as a starving condition in December agreed Friday to plead to charges related to child endangerment, the Placer County District Attorney's Office reported.
Monica Sue Mark, 39, pleaded no contest to child endangerment, while her husband, Abraham David Mark, 50, pleaded no contest to being an accessory, said Joe McInerney, deputy district attorney.
Placer Superior Court Judge Frances Kearney set the sentencing date for Aug. 20.
McInerney said the potential sentence for Monica Mark, who is in the Placer County jail on $151,000 bail, is "open-ended."
"It could be anything from local jail time to a prison sentence," he said.
Abraham Mark, who is in the Placer County jail on a hold for immigration officials, will not serve a prison term, McInerney said.
The mother took her child to a doctor for a routine six-week checkup Dec. 26, and the baby weighed one-third less than her birth weight of 7 to 8 pounds, according to the Auburn Police Department, which described the girl as "severely emaciated" and near death.
The child, now 8 months old, is in the custody of Sacramento County Child Protective Services and continues to recover, McInerney said.
– Art Campos
