An Orange County mother who advocated for stricter DUI laws faces more than a decade in prison after allegedly leaving her daughter locked in a car during a heat wave that brought “dangerously hot conditions” to most of Southern California.
The toddler died outside of the family’s Anaheim apartment complex on Sept 6 while temperatures reached more than 104 degrees.
Relatives started looking for 3-year-old Ily Ruiz and her mother, Sandra Hernandez-Cazares, 42, after staff from her 5-year-old son’s school called family members to tell them no one had come to pick up the young boy from kindergarten.
They found the unconscious pair inside the family’s white Ford Expedition. Some relatives broke the window of the vehicle, while others called first responders.
Family members and paramedics tried to resuscitate the little girl, but she was ultimately pronounced dead at a local hospital. Doctors believe the 3-year-old had been dead for several hours before family members found her.
Parademics also rushed Hernandez-Cazares to the hospital while officers combed through the scene. They found empty alcohol bottles in the SUV. The Orange County District Attorney’s office said her blood alcohol content was .30, nearly four times the legal limit after doctors treated her at the hospital.
Prosecutors charged Hernandez-Cazares with one count of involuntary manslaughter and one count of child abuse causing great bodily injury. She faces a maximum of 12 years in prison if convicted as charged. She’s being held on a $150,000 bail.
The District Attorney said Hernandez-Cazares’ two son young sons were killed by a drunk driver during a South Dakota camping trip in 2012. Hernandez-Cazares and her husband, Juan Ruiz, lobbied for stronger penalties for driving under the influence.
“The unimaginable pain of having your 5-year-old and 9-year-old sons killed by a drunk driver is something from which you can never recover,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said. “A mother who was robbed of the chance to see two of her sons grow up because of the selfish decision of a stranger will have to live with the fact she will never get to see her little girl grow up because of the choices she made.”
Relatives will care for Hernandez-Cazares’ 5-year-old son.