A California mother has been charged with involuntary manslaughter after allegedly leaving her baby boy to die in a scorching hot car while she got a cosmetic lip filler procedure.
Maya Hernandez, 20, is accused of leaving her two young sons - 1-year-old Amillio Gutierrez and his 2-year-old brother - strapped into their car seats outside the Always Beautiful Med Spa in Bakersfield on June 29.
By the time she returned to her 2022 Toyota Corolla hybrid around 4:30pm, little Amillio was foaming at the mouth, convulsing, and unresponsive.
His body temperature had soared to a deadly 107F.
He was rushed to the hospital but died shortly before 6pm.
The toddler's older brother miraculously survived and has since been taken into protective custody.
Police say Hernandez initially claimed she left the car running with the air conditioning on - but when officers arrived, the vehicle was stifling hot.
Investigators later discovered the car had an automatic shut-off feature that kills the engine after one hour.
Maya Hernandez, 20, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and child cruelty after allegedly leaving her sons strapped in their car seats for over two hours in the California heat
Amillio Gutierrez, 1, (right) died after being left in a sweltering car while his mother got lip fillers. His body temperature was 107F when he was rushed to hospital
The 2022 Toyota Corolla hybrid where Amillio and his brother were found strapped in their car seats - the vehicle had an automatic shut-off feature that disabled the air conditioning after one hour, according to investigators
Experts say the internal temperature could have reached a blistering 143F.
The car was parked facing west, directly in the path of the setting sun, during one of the hottest times of the day - with outside temperatures peaking at 101F.
Surveillance footage reportedly shows frantic spa workers and bystanders dousing the children with water in a desperate attempt to save them.
One customer grabbed the drenched 2-year-old and took him into the restroom to cool him down.
A nurse told police Hernandez had inquired ahead of time about bringing her kids to the appointment, but made no mention of actually having them with her when she arrived.
Staff even offered to let the boys stay inside in the air conditioning - but Hernandez allegedly left them outside instead.
Cops say she didn't check on them for more than two hours.
'They were strapped in their car seats. They couldn't even get up to save themselves,' said the boys' heartbroken grandmother, Katie Martinez, told ABC 7. 'She literally locked them in and shut the doors.'
Martinez said she's been sitting in her own car with the windows up just to try to understand what her grandsons went through.
The boys' father (left) is currently behind bars on unrelated charges and learned of his son's death through a jail chaplain
'If you just take 20 minutes out of your day and sit in your car, I think that's the only way to know how a kid feels,' she added.
Despite the horror, Martinez insists her daughter-in-law wasn't a bad mother.
'She wasn't like that. She was a really loving mom,' she said. 'Those boys loved her. They really loved her and they relied on her.'
Hernandez has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter and child cruelty.
She's being held on more than $1 million bail and is scheduled to return to court Friday for a pre-preliminary hearing.
The boys' father - Martinez’s son - is currently behind bars on unrelated charges and learned of his son’s death through a jail chaplain.
A vigil for Amillio was held Saturday at a local park, where stunned members of the community gathered to mourn the young boy’s tragic death.
'My message to her is to accept responsibility,' Gricelda Anaya, who works next door to the spa and witnessed the chaos that unfolded, told local news outlet WKRN. 'It was something very sad that never had to happen.'
Court records reveal Hernandez previously had a run-in with Child Protective Services in March 2023 over alleged emotional abuse - but the complaint was deemed unfounded.
A GoFundMe page launched by the family says they are 'broken' by the loss and struggling to cope in the wake of Amillio's death.