A California mother is facing serious charges after allegedly locking her two toddlers in a sweltering car for over two hours while treating herself to lip fillers at a local spa. “Strapped” into their car seats, the baby brothers were completely helpless in the extreme heat that claimed the life of 1-year-old Amillio.
On June 29 in Bakersfield, California, the sun was blazing as recorded temperatures soared to 101 degrees Fahrenheit.
But no one imagined the heat would become deadly for 1-year-old Amillio Gutierrez, who was “strapped” in his seat and “locked” in the scorching hot car – about 143 degrees – with his 2-year-old brother, while their mother, Maya Hernandez, pampered herself at the Always Beautiful Medica Spa.
Spa visit
According to 23ABC News, a police report detailed that before arriving to her appointment, Hernandez asked spa staff if her children were allowed inside. The technician told her, “Sure if you don’t mind them waiting in the waiting room hun.”
But the mother but made no mention of her two boys when she actually arrived to have her lips filled – a procedure that allegedly lasted between 15 and 20 minutes.
The kids, however, were left in the car for at least two hours, 23ABC reports, and Hernandez did not check on her kids even once.
Until two and a half hours later, KGET claims.
Seizing and foaming at the mouth
Police documents reveal that Hernandez left the 2022 Toyota Corolla hybrid running with the air conditioning set to 60 degrees, but authorities later discovered the car had an automatic shutoff feature that disabled the engine after one hour.
About 4:30 p.m., the mother finally returned to her vehicle and found her baby having a seizure, foaming at the mouth and shaking, KGET writes.
One of the spa’s customers rushed the 2-year-old to the restroom, gently pouring water over his sweat-drenched body in a desperate attempt to cool him down and bring him relief.
“In a normal person, it’s not gonna happen,” said Gricelda Anaya, who watched the tragic event unfold from her workplace next door. “What we see on the camera is that they’re trying to put cold water right here on the reception, and it was something very sad that never had to happen.”
Extreme body temperatures
By the time help arrived, the car was like a sauna and the two boys were rushed to the hospital where Amillio, whose body temperature had soared to 107 degrees, tragically died.
Meanwhile, Hernandez’s 2-year-old son survived with a body temperature of 99 degrees – a detail that underscores the tragic vulnerability of his baby brother. According to medical experts cited in the case, children over the age of two can better regulate their body temperature because they’re able to sweat. Infants don’t have that same ability, making them far more susceptible to heatstroke and fatal overheating in hot cars.
Couldn’t escape
“They were strapped in their car seats. They couldn’t even get up to save themselves,” the boys’ grandmother Katie Martinez shared with ABC7. “She literally locked them in their car seats and shut their doors.”
In a haunting attempt to grasp her grandsons’ suffering, Martinez said she has repeatedly sat in her own car – windows sealed, engine off – forcing herself to feel the stifling heat they couldn’t escape.
“If you just take 20 minutes out of your day and go in your car and feel how it feels, I think that’s the only thing that will teach you how to know what a kid feels,” the grieving grandma said.
No explanation
When confronted with the devastating outcome, Hernandez reportedly admitted she had thought about the risks beforehand – acknowledging it was irresponsible to leave her children in the car. Still, she made the decision to walk away, later telling authorities she couldn’t explain why she did it.
“My message to her is to accept the responsibility,” Anaya told KGET.
Child cruelty
Hernandez now faces serious charges of involuntary manslaughter and child cruelty. She’s being held on more than $1 million bail and is expected back in court Friday for a pre-preliminary hearing.
Adding to the heartbreak, the boys’ father – currently behind bars on unrelated charges – learned of his son’s death not from family, but through a jail chaplain delivering the devastating news.
Amillio’s death wasn’t just a tragic accident – it was a preventable loss that has shattered a family and stunned a community.
One moment of poor judgment cost a child his life and left a brother, a father, and a grandmother grappling with unthinkable pain. As the legal case unfolds, one truth remains: no cosmetic appointment, no errand, no excuse is worth a child’s life.
Please let us know what punishment you think the mother is deserving of and then share this story so we can hear from others.
