Walker v. Warnock

SHOEMAKER, P. J. Appellants Thomas and Deanna Warnock prosecute this appeal from orders granting the petition of respondents Charles and Sharyn Lou Walker to adopt a minor child, and denying the petition of appellant Deanna Warnock to withdraw the consent to adoption which she had previously executed.

This proceeding was commenced on January 16, 1963, when respondents Walker filed a petition to adopt Baby Girl Duarte, a minor child then less than one month old. In support of said petition, respondents filed a formal consent to adoption dated February 4, 1963, and signed by Deanna Duarte, the child’s natural mother.

On July 12, 1963, Deanna Warnoek, formerly Deanna Duarte, filed a petition to withdraw the consent to adoption on the ground that she and Thomas Warnock, the child’s natural father, had married and were desirous of providing a home for their child.

Two reports, dated July 15, 1963, and September 24, 1963, were filed by the Alameda County Welfare Department. From the first report, it appears that Baby Girl Duarte was born on December 22, 1962, and was taken to live with the Walkers on December 25, 1962. Placement arrangements had been made by two doctors and an attorney, and all medical expenses in connection with the birth were paid by the Walkers. The natural mother, who was 14 years of age when her child was born, originally named Gyles Dean Parker as [777]the natural father. However, on May 9, 1963, she named Thomas Warnock as the natural father and he subsequently confirmed this fact. She and Warnock were married in Reno, Nevada, on May 22, 1963. While the Walkers were found to be suitable adoptive parents, the department recommended that their petition for adoption be denied without prejudice for the reason that the minor’s legal status was in question.

The second report detailed Warnock’s background and the circumstances of his marriage to Deanna Duarte. This report shows that Warnock, a man 28 years of age, possessed an extensive criminal record. At the time of his marriage to Deanna Duarte, she was a ward of the Juvenile Court and had been denied permission to marry Warnock because of his age and police record. Subsequent to the marriage, she stated that she had disobeyed the orders of the court and falsified her age to marry Warnock because she believed she was pregnant by him. Warnock stated that he had married one Willow Dean Goss in 1957 and that they were divorced in May 1959, in Gulfport, Mississippi. However, the Chancery Clerk of Harrison County, Mississippi, stated that although a bill for divorce had been filed by Willow D. Warnock against Thomas Warnock on May 15, 1959, in Gulfport, Mississippi, no final decree was ever rendered. The department concluded that the best interests of the minor child would not be served by her return to the natural mother, and recommended that the petition to withdraw consent to adoption be denied.