Background: Maya Hernandez in court with defense attorney Teryl Wakeman (Law&Crime). Inset: Baby Amillio (GoFundMe).
A California mother is on the brink of learning her legal fate following the tragic death of her one-year-old son, who succumbed after being left in a hot car while she visited a medical spa.
Maya Hernandez, 20, faces charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter, and two counts of child cruelty in relation to the fatal incident involving her son Amillio on June 29. According to previous reports by Law&Crime, Hernandez attended a med spa in Bakersfield, California, for a lip filler procedure, allegedly leaving her two young sons in the vehicle as temperatures outside soared to 101 degrees Fahrenheit.
Upon returning to her car after an absence of over two hours, Hernandez observed that her son Amillio appeared unwell.
In her opening statement on Monday, Prosecutor Stephanie Taconi asserted that Hernandez prioritized “vanity” and her appearance over the welfare of her children.
Witnesses recounted that Hernandez carried her “limp” and “purple” one-year-old into the med spa, while another bystander assisted in removing her two-year-old son from the car. A nurse present at the spa noted that the older child appeared on the verge of a stroke.
During a July hearing, it was revealed by prosecutors that Hernandez had been texting with med spa staff before her appointment, inquiring if she could bring her children inside. An employee responded affirmatively, stating, “Sure if you don’t mind them waiting in the waiting room, hun.” Despite this, Hernandez chose not to bring her children into the facility.
During opening arguments, Taconi said Hernandez “chose to leave them in the car. She chose a break. She chose time to herself. She chose time to socialize with other adults. And again, that choice cost Amillio his life.”
Amillio was brought to the hospital, where he was found to have a temperature of 107.2 degrees. When he arrived, hospital staff said he was “pale with blue lips, feet and hands, unconscious and with no pulse,” Taconi said. Despite lifesaving measures, he was pronounced dead at 5:48 p.m.
While presenting a timeline of the day’s events, Taconi noted that the two little boys were “trapped” in their car seats as the heat rose outside. The prosecutor also presented text messages exchanged between Hernandez and others who had offered to watch her children while she got the procedure.
The prosecution concluded by saying, “There are no accidents here. There are no accidents in this case. This isn’t a case of a forgotten child whose mom was in a hurry. These were intentional actions, done willfully by the defendant.”
When the defense began their argument, Hernandez’s defense attorney Teryl Wakeman said, “This is an incredibly sad case about a 20-year-old mother of two, a car, and a terrible, awful mistake. But it’s not about murder.”
Wakeman also argued that when his client left the two boys in the car, “she left her kids in their car seats with cookies, a bottle of milk, each, and with [her older son] she left her phone so that he could watch TV.” When she left the boys, “the car was running, the air conditioning was on. Ms. Hernandez thought that the car would stay running, that the air condition would, likewise, remain on.”
The defense stated that they would concede to the manslaughter and child cruelty counts against Hernandez, but they plan to challenge the second-degree murder charge.
