Maya Hernandez, a 20 years old mother of two boys aged 1 and 2 years pleaded not guilty on July 1 to charges of “involuntary manslaughter and two counts of willful cruelty to a child after her one-year-old son died in her hot car while she received lip filler at a spa” as reported by The Mirror US.
On June 29, Maya visited a Bakersfield med spa and left her two children inside the car, strapped to the seat for more than two hours. According to authorities, the children remained trapped inside the car without air conditioning for at least 90 minutes as the air conditioning had been automatically shut down after an hour or so.
One of the spa employees talked about the incident and said that Maya previously mentioned that she would be bringing her children along as she had booked the appointment. However, upon her arrival at the spa, her children were not seen with her, and neither did she mention them, as ABC 7 reported.
She apparently got a lip filler at the spa, and the procedure took around 15-20 minutes, as reported by The Mirror US. Moreover, as per court documents, Maya had left the car AC running when she left. However, as the AC was automatically turned off after an hour or so, the car started to get hotter and the temperature that afternoon ranged from 99 to 101 degrees Fahrenheit.
View this post on Instagram
As per authorities, the children must have remained inside the car for some 90 minutes in that condition before Maya came out from the spa and saw one of her children foaming at the mouth. She gave the child mouth-to-mouth in an attempt to save him and also called the authorities.
As the two children were taken to the hospital, the 1 year old was announced to be dead. The 2-year-old fortunately survived. Katie Martinez, the boys’ grandmother, spoke about this tragedy and said, “They were strapped in their car seats. They couldn’t even get up to save themselves. She literally locked them in their car seats and shut their doors.”
1-year-old CA boy dies after being left in hot car while mom got cosmetic procedure, police say
byu/panda-rampage inCalifornia
However, she also added, “She wasn’t like that. She was a really loving mom. Those boys loved her. They really loved her and they relied on her.” Maya’s bail is currently set at more than $1 million and she will probably make another appearance at court on Friday, July 11. The boys’ father is currently incarcerated on unrelated charges and heard of the news from a jail chaplain.
