Maya Hernandez: Mum in court as son dies after she left him in car on day when temperatures reached 38C
A mum whose child died when she left him in a hot car while she went for a beauty treatment has appeared in court.
The outside temperature was 38C (101F) when Maya Hernandez left both her kids in a car while she went off to get a lip filler.
Tragically, a one-year-old boy died in the heat while a two-year-old was hospitalised. A police report said that the inside temperature of the car could have reached 61C (143F) in the searing heat.
Hernandez has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and two counts of willful cruelty to a child after the tragedy. Court documents say that she was in the spa getting the filler for more than two hours, and that she had left the car running with the air conditioning on, set to 16C (60F). She is said to have told police that she left the children with milk, sweets, crackers, and a mobile phone to watch.
Hernandez thought that the car would stay on - but it has been confirmed that her Toyota’s system shut down after an hour of inactivity. She admitted to police that she did not check on them between 2pm and 4.30pm.
She had asked the nurse doing the procedure whether she could bring her children in, according to the police report, and was told she could leave them in the waiting room, reported NBC. She did not bring the children inside, because she was worried about the time, the report says.
She told police that when she went back to the car, one of the children was foaming at the mouth. She called the emergency services and the children were taken to hospital and the one-year-old had an internal temperature of 41C (107F) when he was admitted and no signs of life. He was pronounced dead at 6pm. The older child was not as hot, and was able to eat and drink. Bakersfield police said he was in a stable condition and placed in protective custody.
Hernandez, 20, pleaded not guilty at court and is in custody on remand.
A Bakersfield police report said Hernandez “admitted that it was irresponsible to leave her kids in the car, and she thought about it when she got out of the car but had no justification as to why she left them."
The boys’ dad is in prison.
A GoFundMe page set up by their grandmother Katie Martinez says: “My grandson Amillio was only here for one year. Amillio was so special; he always had a smile no matter what. He is loved by so many, our lives will not be the same. His brother will forever be without his best friend. Nobody is ready for something like this to happen. He just started walking on Thursday, and on Sunday, he gained his angel wings. I will never be the same without him.”
The incident happened in Bakersfield, California - about 100 miles west of Los Angeles.