Davis, newborn [Updated]

A black newborn, identified by the coroner as "Baby girl Davis, died shortly after her mother gave birth via cesarean-section after someone intentionally hit her with a car Sunday, April 5, in the 300 block of East 102nd Street in Green Meadows, according to Los Angeles County coroner's records.

Ed Winter, a spokesman for the coroner's office, said her mother was intentionally struck with a car while she was pregnant and was forced to deliver the baby girl by a cesarean-section. The child survived for seven hours at the hospital before she was pronounced dead. She was never given a first name, Winter said.

Her mother, who was not identified, survived her injuries.

Monica Mercado, a 27-year-old Latina, turned herself in at the Los Angeles Police Department's Newton station hours after she allegedly used her sport utility vehicle to strike a 24-year-old woman who was dating her ex-boyfriend, police said.

Witnesses told authorities that Mercado and the woman, who was seven months' pregnant, got into an argument Sunday morning. Mercado struck the woman with her Range Rover near the intersection of East 102nd Street and Towne Avenue in South Los Angeles about 10:30 a.m., "causing her serious injuries and the death of her unborn child," according to an LAPD news release.

Mercado has been charged with murder, as well as attempted murder and attempted premeditated and willful murder, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney. She pleaded not guilty to the charges. Her trial is scheduled to begin in Superior Court in Compton on Jan. 21, 2009.

Mercado is incarcerated in a county jail in lieu of $2 million bail.

-- Anthony Pesce and Ari Bloomekatz

Updated Jan. 30, 2010: Los Angeles County jurors convicted Mercado of the murder of the baby and the attempted murder of the child's mother on Jan. 29.

"Jurors found true allegations of great bodily injury and termination of pregnancy. An allegation that the attempted murder was willful, deliberate and premeditated was found not true," officials from the District Attorney's office said in a news release.

Mercado is scheduled to be sentenced March 1 in Compton Superior Court. She faces a maximum of 23 years, four months to life.

-- Megan Garvey