NOT GUILTY PLEAS IN BABY DEATH

A young homeless couple charged with killing their newborn son in a Bakersfield hotel have both pleaded not guilty to second degree murder.

The coroner says Gage and Debra Roberts’ baby Crimson died from smothering at the Downtowner Inn on Chester and California Avenues last year. The couple’s oldest child had died a few months before in Kansas while the youngest is in protective custody here.

Kelli Forsch