Woman convicted of killing her children’s former foster mother in Pasadena

A Superior Court jury has found a woman guilty of strangling to death a 75-year-old Pasadena woman who had been the foster mother of two of her children.

Mary Jean O’Connor, 46, was convicted on Wednesday, Nov. 1, of the first-degree murder of Jeri Douglas and faces a possible sentence of 25 years to life in state prison, said Venusse Dunn, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

O’Connor is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 7 at Pasadena Superior Court. Her attorney declined to comment on the case.

On Dec. 17, 2018, Douglas’ daughters were unable to contact her and called Pasadena police. Officers went to check on her, forced entry into her condominium in the 200 block of South Madison Avenue and found Douglas dead. Nine days later, O’Connor was arrested.

Douglas’ daughters, Lorie Hope and Tanya Juhasz, filed a civil lawsuit in 2019 against the county. It accuses the Department of Children and Family Services of improperly allowing confidential information to be obtained by O’Connor so she could find Douglas. The suit is ongoing.

According to that suit, O’Connor had pretended to be from that department and called Douglas a few days before the murder and claimed some additional paperwork needed to be signed regarding one of the children’s time with Douglas.

A meeting was set up for Dec. 17, the suit says. Douglas had been a foster mother to a son and daughter of O’Connor about eight years before.

O’Connor had given birth in July 2009 to the boy, but he was removed from her custody about a month later after allegations surfaced of neglect, according to the lawsuit. The boy was placed with two foster parents before Douglas got him in April 2010. O’Connor visited her son for a while at a Children and Family Services location.

In September of that year, O’Connor gave birth to a daughter. She allegedly reneged on an agreement to place the girl with Children and Family Services and hid for about four months, the lawsuit says.

When the agency found O’Connor and her daughter, it placed the girl with Douglas, the civil lawsuit says.

The agency transferred the boy from Douglas to her daughter, Juhasz, and her husband for foster care. The couple adopted the child in 2011. That same year, O’Connor’s parents were given custody of the girl.

From 2011 to 2018, the suit says, O’Connor had three more children, who also were removed from her custody.