A California woman is now facing murder charges after leaving her 1-year-old son in a hot car while she went to a medical spa for a cosmetic procedure.
Maya Hernandez, 20, appeared in court on Tuesday following her arrest earlier this month in connection with the death of her son, Amillio Gutierrez.
After hearing prosecutor Stephanie Taconi’s evidence, Judge Brian McNamara agreed to add a murder charge to her original charges of manslaughter and two counts of child cruelty.
WGET, a local NBC affiliate, was in the courtroom for the hearing, which featured witnesses and detectives who were on the scene on June 29, when Hernandez returned to her car to discover 1-year-old Amillio appeared “off.”
According to WGET’s coverage of the hearing, detectives stated that surveillance video captured Hernandez arriving at the medical spa at 1:10 p.m. on June 29. She briefly exited and returned to the car, remaining until 2:09 p.m., when she returned to the medical spa.
The next time she was seen returning to her car was 4:33 p.m., after leaving her 1- and 2-year-old children unattended for nearly 2 1/2 hours as the temperature rose to 101 degrees in the afternoon heat.
Amillio had a temperature of 107.2 degrees, according to the nurse who treated him when he arrived at the emergency room. When he arrived, he was “pale with blue lips, feet and hands, unconscious, and with no pulse.” Despite life-saving efforts, he was pronounced dead at 5:48 p.m.
A woman who was visiting the medical spa with a friend told the court that she spoke with Hernandez in the waiting room. Hernandez stated that she had “two little babies,” but did not specify whether they were outside in the car.
After finishing her procedure, Hernandez went outside and returned inside with a child who appeared “limp” and “purple” and made “gargling” sounds.
Someone else handed Hernandez’s two-year-old to the woman, who reported that the older boy was hot to the touch and sweating. She took the boy into the restroom at the medical spa to cool him down with cold water.
A nurse from the medical spa stated that the 2-year-old boy “looked like he was going to have a stroke.”
According to the same nurse, Hernandez “looked out of it, like she didn’t care what was going on.”
Amillio’s autopsy revealed that his brain had begun to swell and other organs were failing by the time he died.
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Prosecutors presented text messages Hernandez exchanged with a medical spa staff member prior to her appointment. Hernandez specifically asked, “Thank you, can I bring my kids by chance?” A medical spa employee replied, “Sure, if you don’t mind them waiting in the waiting room, hun.”
Several witnesses stated that there were other supervised children in the lobby, which was deemed a safe environment for them.
Detectives told the court that they reenacted the alleged crime scene on July 2 using nearly identical weather conditions and Hernandez’s Toyota Corolla hybrid. They parked the car in the same spot and placed their body-worn cameras inside.
The Corolla turned itself off at 3:09 p.m. on the day of the experiment, in accordance with the car’s known mechanism for shutting down the engine after one hour of inactivity.
The car’s internal temperature reached 116 degrees at 4:15 p.m. One of the body cameras shut down due to a “critical internal temperature.”
Detective Kyle McNabb stated that when he interviewed Hernandez, she told him that she had considered the possibility that the car would become too hot for her children to stay inside. She stated that she had left the air conditioner set to 60 degrees and the fan on high. The car was left unlocked, with the keys under the front seat.
He also stated that Hernandez admitted her actions were irresponsible and that she had heard radio ads warning about the dangers of leaving children in hot cars. McNabb claimed Hernandez told him, “It’s not like I left them in there for them to just f—ing die.”
Hernandez has now been charged with first-degree murder, manslaughter, and two counts of child cruelty. She is still in custody for more than $1 million. Her arraignment is scheduled for July 24.
