On 8/12, Maya Hernandez, 20, faced trial in a California court on charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter, and child abuse.
According to the indictment and court testimony, on 29/6, Maya drove her oto to a beauty salon in Bakersfield, California, for lip filler injections. The young mother left her two sons, one and two years old, in the oto in the parking lot, locked the car, turned on the air conditioning, left snacks and milk, and then went into the spa.
Maya Hernandez in court on 8/12. Photo: Kget
According to court records, the defendant's Toyota Corolla model would shut off after one hour if left unattended.
When she returned, the one-year-old child was unconscious and died after being hospitalized with a body temperature of 41 degrees Celsius. The older brother fortunately survived.
Prosecutors argued that although Maya's lip injection procedure only took 15 to 20 minutes, she remained in the spa for two hours without checking on the children during that time.
The indictment revealed that before the lip injection, Maya had messaged a spa employee asking if she could bring her children inside and received an affirmative answer, as the spa had a waiting room outside the procedure room. For an unexplained reason, Maya still decided to leave the two boys in the car. The trial is ongoing.
According to the National Safety Council, an average of 38 children die in hot cars each year in the US, with most victims under two years old. 54% of these deaths are due to parents forgetting their children. Parents often believe they dropped their child off or do not remember their child was with them that day. Other causes include children playing unsupervised in vehicles (28%) or being intentionally left behind (17%).
Hai Thu (Source: People, Injury Facts)
