Mom gets 15 years after 1-year-old son dies in hot car during her cosmetic procedure

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK/KBFX) — Maya Hernandez, a California mother convicted of child abuse for leaving her two sons in a hot car, killing one, was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.

One-year-old Amillio died after Hernandez left him behind while she was getting a cosmetic procedure, according to authorities.

A Kern County jury was deadlocked on second-degree murder in the case of Maya Hernandez, the Visalia mother charged in the hot-car death of her one-year-old son, Amilio, and the endangerment of his two-year-old brother, Mateo, as she attended a medical spa for a liquid BBL in Bakersfield back in June of this year. She was found guilty on two counts of child endangerment. PHOTO: KBAK/KBFX

“Fifteen years doesn’t look like enough,” Katie Martinez, the children’s paternal grandmother, said in court. “Our city wept for our Amillio.”

Hernandez previously pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter. The murder charge was dismissed.

In December, a jury was deadlocked on a second-degree murder charge, leading to a mistrial on that charge and involuntary manslaughter. She was found guilty on two counts of child endangerment for her children.

Last June, Hernandez drove from Visalia to Bakersfield for a cosmetic procedure, leaving her 1-year-old son, Amillio, and 2-year-old son, Mateo, in the car with snacks, cartoons playing on her phone, and the air conditioning on.

During the trial, a Bakersfield Police Department investigation found that the car’s air conditioning shut off after about an hour, leaving the children in temperatures over 100 degrees. Hernandez was inside the spa for more than two and a half hours.

Both children were lethargic when found, with Amillio showing no signs of life at the hospital. He died.

The father of the two boys, Rosendo Guiterrez, spoke out following the sentencing. He was incarcerated at the time of the incident on unrelated charges.

Guiterrez recounted the moments of being told by authorities about the death of his child and the hospitalization of his other child.

“I think I let them down cause I wasn’t there to save them,” he said.