Man found dead in parking lot on California Ave.

A man was found dead in a car in a parking lot around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in the 4000 block of California Avenue, Bakersfield Police Department Public Information Officer Sgt. Eric Celedon reported Thursday.

Celedon said officers responded to a call from the Kern County Fire Department after it found the person unresponsive in a parked car. Firefighters had to break a window to get to the man, Celedon said.

Firefighters and Hall Ambulance declared the man dead at the scene, Celedon said. He said the

Kern County coroner’s office will release the name of the man at a later time.

The investigation is ongoing. Celedon said the death was not suspicious in nature.

A man found guilty of beating an infant to death

in 1996 was denied parole Wednesday, according to the Kern County District Attorney’s Office.

Perfecto Cervantes is serving 15 years to life in prison for second-degree murder after a 7-month-old baby boy was found with serious injuries on his face and head on July 13, 1996.

The baby was taken to Kern Medical and died on July 14, 1996, according to the DA’s office.

The DA’s office reported that the mother of the child and Cervantes’ girlfriend said she saw Cervantes sleeping in the bed with the baby on the day of the baby’s death. When she came to check on the child, she saw the baby on the floor and suspected he had fallen off the bed.

Cervantes admitted to “playing rough” with the child before the baby fell off the bed, according to the DA’s office. However, an examining doctor said the baby had been hit in the head multiple times.

The doctor who performed an autopsy determined the baby’s cause of death was a brain bleed due to blunt force trauma. The baby had a large skull fracture from multiple blows to the head and bruising on his head, face and chest, according to the DA’s office.

Cervantes’ next parole hearing will be in five years. The board said Cervantes needs to take responsibility for his crime, engage in significant programming, stop communicating with negative contacts and create a detailed plan for his parole.

The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Con

trol will be working with local law enforcement agencies across the state to conduct a “shoulder tap decoy operation” on Saturday.

According to the agency, the operation is intended to reduce access to alcohol for people under the age of 21.