'Lip Filler BBL Mom' Locked Up for Baby's Hot Car Death

15 years doesn't seem like enough.

And my eyes are the eyes of a father who

met. She was a histone and they

cold-grained. It's not enough.

Maya Hernandez learned her fate in the death of her one-year-old son.

After prosecutors say she left him and his brother in a scorching hot car

to get a cosmetic procedure.

She chose her appearance over her sons,

and that choice cost Emilio his life.

This is an incredibly sad case.

About a 20-year-old mother of two,

car, and a terrible, awful mistake.

This is an incredibly sad case.

About a 20-year-old mother of two, a car,

and a terrible, awful situation.

A deadlock jury left the case at a standstill

until Hernandez took a plea deal.

By understanding that the people in the

defense have entered into an agreement,

just Hernandez will enter a plea of no

welcome to sidebar presented by law and crime.

I'm Jesse Weber.

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A 20 year old mother of two from Viseria, California,

has been sentenced to 15 years behind bars in the death of her one year old son.

This was after she pleaded no contest to a count of

involuntary manslaughter with additional enhancements of child cruelty.

Now, no contest, meaning you aren't necessarily admitting that you

committed the crime, but you just aren't going to fight it.

You aren't contesting it. You're allowing yourself to be convicted of this crime.

Now, this is a case that took nearly nine months to come to an end.

And it has been at the center of debate in the court of public opinion

and in the courtroom itself. And this is left to jury deadlocked

on if the woman's standing trial was in fact a murderer.

What is apparent in this case is that Maya Hernandez was spared an even worse

punishment. And if you heard the clip at the start of the

episode, at least one of the victim's family members was not happy

with this outcome. Now, we're going to get to how the sentencing hearing played

out in court this week. But we need to first talk about

how we got here in the first place. According to an incident report from the

Bakersville Police Department, officers were dispatched to the always

beautiful med spa at around 4.45 p.m. on June 29th, 2025.

After Hernandez called 911 to report her baby was in breathing.

Officers noticed Hernandez is one year old son.

Emilio Gutierrez was unconscious, not breathing,

had blue discoloration around his lips.

And at the time an employee at the med spa was holding Hernandez's two-year-old

son who, according to the officer, appeared

lethargic with soaking wet hair. You'll see why in a minute we'll talk about that.

Both children were transported to a local hospital where

unfortunately, tragically, sadly, I don't even know what else you can describe

this as. Emilio was pronounced dead shortly thereafter.

According to the police report Emilio's internal temperature had reached

107 degrees Fahrenheit with the coroner later determining that he died of heat stroke.

Now Hernandez's two-year-old son fortunately survived this incident

and was placed into protective custody.

Hernandez, she told police that she arrived at the med spot around 2 p.m.

that afternoon to receive a cosmetic procedure.

So it wasn't like medically necessary procedure, which is important, I think to

understand. And police initially reported it to be

lip filler injections, but we're going to get into that a little bit later on.

Hernandez told police that she left both of her children buckled in the back seat

with the air conditioning on, but it wasn't until 4.30 p.m.

so roughly two and a half hours later that she left that spot

and noticed her children were in medical distress.

When officers asked her why she just didn't take her children inside the med spot

for the appointment, she said she didn't think that they would be harmed

with her vehicle and the air conditioning on.

But here's the thing, police determined that Hernandez's car was actually

off for around one and a half hours while she was inside.

It was later discovered by detectives that her specific Toyota sedan model

automatically shuts off if it doesn't receive any input from the driver within an hour.

Now keep in mind, the reported temperature that day was around 101 degrees

Fahrenheit and according to prosecutors, the temperature in the vehicle

reached a scorching 116 degrees Fahrenheit.

According to the police report, Hernandez admitted to detectives that she knew it was

irresponsible to leave her kids in the car.

And she thought about it when she got out of the vehicle to enter the med spot

but had really no justification as to why she left them in there.

And it was at this point that Hernandez was initially charged

with involuntary manslaughter and two counts of child endangerment.

But the following month, this is when Hernandez received an additional

upgraded charge.

Second degree murder.

She pleaded not guilty to all of these charges.

This was a head of her trial that began in December.

Now cameras were allowed inside the courtroom for opening statements

and this is where prosecutors said that Hernandez, they made the argument

that she made a choice.

She made a deadly choice.

On June 29th, 2025, the defendant, the biological mother to Amelia

and the one person who is supposed to protect,

supposed to put her two sons above everything else, chose herself.

On that day, June 29th, 2025, the defendant chose vanity.

She chose her appearance over her sons.

And that choice cost Amelia his life.

On June 29th, 2025, in the heart of Baker's Field Summer,

the defendant Maya Hernandez drove from Missalia to Baker's Fields.

She drove here with her two sons, Amelia and

she drove here to an elective cosmetic procedure, a procedure to enhance her looks.

And ladies and gentlemen, when she drove here, she knew

that she could bring the boys, Amelia and

in to the appointment with her.

She knew they were welcome.

She knew they could wait inside the air conditioning,

but she 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 Amelia his life.

She did not leave that building a single time between 205 PM and 430 to check on her sons.

She chose to ignore all of her responsibilities.

She ignored the fact that she had children that day.

She ignored the fact that they were in the car.

She spoke about her children, ladies and gentlemen.

She told the other patrons in the spa that she had children.

What she failed to acknowledge, what she failed to ever say is that her children were in the car.

She didn't tell anybody this information because she knew it was wrong.

She knew her two babies should not be in the car without her in the heat.

But she chose to leave them there anyway.

You will also see the text messages that the defendant exchanged with the injector,

with the registered nurse that provided the treatment.

Text messages where she says,

can I bring my kids inside or can I bring my kids in by chance?

Sure, if you don't mind them waiting in the waiting area, hun.

That message, ladies and gentlemen, came before the defendant ever left the

Celia for Baker's fields.

To kind of piggyback off this information, you're also going to hear that the defendant

did have an option for a babysitter that day.

She knew she could have asked her sister and her sister probably would have said yes,

but she chose not to.

This wasn't an accident.

It wasn't a mistake.

She did not forget them.

She knew they were there.

She left them in the car.

You will hear that she knew the dangers of doing so.

She knew before she got out of her car that if she left them in the car,

Emilio and could be injured, that they could die.

She knew that.

You will hear that with that knowledge, with that information, she did it anyway.

But meanwhile, Hernandez's defense team painted a different picture,

that this was just a tragic, unfortunate mistake.

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.

The two children in this case are

and Emilio.

Mr. Hernandez is their mother.

And she is a single parent living up in Visalia where she works as a CNA

in a care facility called Sierra Valley Rehub Center.

Before she goes into the business, she left her kids in their car seats

with cookies, a bottle of milk, each, and with

she left her phone so that he could watch TV.

Before she went into the business, Mr. Hernandez left her keys under the seat.

The car was running, the air conditioning was on.

Mr. Hernandez thought that the car would stay running,

that the air conditioning would likewise remain on.

And that, that, that, that, Emilio would be okay.

I want to pause for a second.

Because law enforcement would later determine two things.

One, there's no black box information in this case.

And what I mean by that is that the car's

data recorder cannot provide any on-off times for the engine relevant to this case.

And number two, law enforcement verifies with Toyota Mechanics

that the car shuts off after an hour if the shift lever stays in park.

And that timer system in that car is reset

if the brake pedal is depressed or if the shift lever moves,

neither of which unfortunately happened in this case.

Things that the business were running behind

and Mr. Hernandez stayed in the waiting room too long.

And when the procedure was done, she went back out to the car and discovered

that something was very wrong with Emilio.

Cheeks were red.

And that's something that happens with him,

according to what Mr. Hernandez will later tell law enforcement.

And when Mr. Hernandez took Emilio

out of his car seat, Emilio started shaking.

In her own words, Mr. Hernandez starts freaking out.

And she initially believes that Emilio is having a seizure

because how does seizure once before and to her, it looked the same.

Mr. Hernandez calls 911 twice.

And in between takes Emilio inside the business to the nurse.

Mr. Hernandez attempts CPR on Emilio and 911 helps her with that.

But tragically, it doesn't work.

And neither do the attempts by medical personnel.

Now, unfortunately, cameras weren't allowed inside the courtroom

to film the witnesses, but we do have court reporters

that were able to give recaps of the testimony.

So here's what stood out.

Prosecutors called Isabella Caterion to the stem.

She was an employee of the Med Spa that Hernandez

traveled to on that day of the incident.

And according to her, Hernandez went out to her vehicle

after the procedure to go get her phone to pay.

And 15 minutes later,

Caryone exited the building, saw Hernandez

sitting in the car holding one of her children

with a second child in the back seat.

And she confirmed on the stand that she told officers Hernandez

didn't appear to act with any sense of urgency.

Didn't appear at any point to be on the phone

with 911 or performing CPR

or initiating any life-saving measures.

Though I will add, the jury did hear Hernandez

his 911 call during this case.

The prosecution also called Harmony Pacheo.

This is the registered nurse who was conducting Hernandez's procedure.

Now, first of all, she told the prosecution and the jury

that Hernandez didn't go to the Med Spa

for lip filler injections,

but for a liquid BBL procedure,

which also includes injections to your,

you know, you're behind to make it bigger.

And Pacheo said the procedure lasted 15 to 20 minutes.

Hernandez left the building again to go get her phone to pay.

But when she returned, she had a meal in her arms.

And according to her, this little boy

was purple, had foam in his mouth.

And when Pacheo shouted for someone to call the ambulance,

Hernandez reportedly went back outside.

Eventually, she said a spot employee

brought Hernandez's two-year-old son inside the building

attempted to cool him down.

Now, when it came time for the defense's case,

Hernandez herself took the stand.

She tried to explain her situation.

She tried to explain what happened.

She told the jury about her role as a single parent,

a primary provider, and then she got into the morning of the incident.

And Hernandez testified there's sons a breakfast

before she took them with her to the Med Spa,

how both kids were asleep when she went in for that procedure.

And Hernandez told the jury that she had previously slept in her car,

had left the AC running, never turning off before.

And while inside the waiting room,

Hernandez testified that she used her Apple Watch

to make sure that her children were still watching YouTube.

But it wasn't until she went out to her car to pay

that she noticed her children were in trouble.

And the 9-1 phone call was then played for the jury,

where she reportedly told the dispatcher

that she believed her son Emilio was dead.

Hernandez then told the dispatcher

that she was performing CPR

and the dispatcher proceeded to give her instructions.

Hernandez testified that she spoke with dispatchers

until the ambulance arrived.

And while wrapping up her testimony,

Hernandez said that she believed

that she was taking responsibility for what she did,

her actions when she told detectives

that she was irresponsible.

And she didn't intend for her children to be harmed.

But then we had cross-examination, right?

This is the prosecution's ability to question the defendant.

And Hernandez admitted to the jury

that she didn't know what her kids were doing

for the two and a half hours she was inside that Med Spa

and that they could have come into the business

using a double stroller that she had in the trunk,

but she explained on the stand

that she didn't want to leave her kids alone inside

the business with strangers.

Hernandez testified that it wasn't

until what happened to her sons

that she realized she made a fatal mistake.

After both sides rested their case,

each side gave their closing arguments.

She deliberately acted with conscious disregard for human life.

It sounds stupid for me to say like,

oh, like I didn't mean for that to happen,

because like I did leave them,

but I thought they were going to be okay.

It sounds stupid for me to say I thought they were going to be okay.

It sounds stupid for me to say that

because we all know, everybody knows,

I, Maya Hernandez, know that that's dangerous

and I did it anyway.

She knew leaving them was a bad decision.

She knew leaving them in the car was dangerous

before she got out of the car.

And she did it anyway.

With the knowledge that her actions were dangerous,

with the knowledge about her actions were dangerous to human life,

with the knowledge about her actions

leaving the kids in the car could result in death.

She did it anyway.

This is conscious disregard for human life, ladies and gentlemen.

If you're the parent that just walks in and leaves them in a hot car,

you're consciously disregarding.

That was that alternate scenario, the first one.

But this one is hot car, hot car, hot car.

Maya knows that it's hot and hot car.

So she turns on the AC thinking it's going to keep running.

So in order to get her for conscious disregard,

they would have to prove that Maya knew the car would time out

and then went in anyway.

The point isn't that Maya didn't know that leaving a kid in a hot car is risky.

She did.

That's why she left the AC on.

What she didn't know is that it would turn off.

Maya thought she mitigated the risk.

And this is true whether she's walking away or sitting in the lobby.

For your apt-to-time decision, this is true either way

because she thought the AC was on.

She was wrong, tragically.

Well, after two days of deliberations, look what happened with the jury.

We have a note from the jury from 9.15 a.m., which reads as follows.

We're hopelessly deadlocked.

The jurors in favor of guilty on count one are not in their position.

We feel that further deliberation would be pointless.

Third count.

We did jury entitled to try the butt in type of case.

Find the defendant, Maya Hernandez, guilty of child abuse,

likely to produce great, wildly harm or death of Amelia G.

Fourth count.

We did jury entitled to try the butt in type of case.

Find the defendant, Maya Hernandez, guilty of child abuse,

likely to produce great, wildly harm or death of

a ****.

I am declaring Ms. Trolley as the count one which then necessitates

of this child as the count two count two being a lesser included.

Yeah, so Hernandez was convicted on two counts of child abuse,

but there was a mistrial.

The jury was deadlocked when it came to those other charges of second

degree murder and involuntary manslaughter,

meaning prosecutors would have the option to retry those charges.

That didn't end up happening,

because on February 11th of this year,

Hernandez opted for a plea deal.

By understanding that the people in the defense

have entered into an agreement,

just Hernandez would enter a plea of no contest.

And as I said earlier,

Hernandez pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter

with enhancements of child cruelty with a fixed prison sentence of 15 years.

So you fast forward to this week where Hernandez sat before the court

to officially receive her sentence from the judge,

but before that happened, a victim impact statement was given

from Katie Martinez.

This is the grandmother of Hernandez's two children.

Here's what she had to say.

I have come here today to speak true that no key deal

on the people adopted it can capture.

15 years doesn't seem like enough.

And the eyes of the law, I remember, has been assigned

to this tragedy.

But in my eyes and in the eyes of a father who had

to visit his son in a cold grave,

it is not enough.

At least if we all have a lifetime without a meal,

whenever a ten graduation birthday parties

or even have them sitting in the kitchen table

to eat a simple meal, the tragedies

just didn't bring our family.

It shook the hearts of people, the patients,

the doctors, and the cradians, our cityweeds over our video.

It was so hard to get that home called their day.

And seeing a baby without his brother

has broken my heart in the future.

No.

I asked for you to hear the way that his father

or a family mentioned that no sentence

will ever keep his name out of our town.

And we will strive that no other job

ever has to do this in here.

So it seems that Martinez was the only family member

to speak during med hearing.

So the judge that moved on to the official sentencing.

As we know, we did have a three-trial who

was a partial verdict in this case.

So we have a verdict and then this resolution

reached between our people who was taking

California and Mr. Nendez through her journey with her journey.

Earlier, and that's how we reached the point

that we're at here today.

Credits are 250 actual 37 good at work

for a total of 287 and some 15% basis calculation.

In regard to count three, you look at section 273A,

so section A probation is denied.

You are sentenced to the Department of Corrections

for the upper term of six years.

That is enhanced by six years,

pursuant to section 12 through to 2.7 D of the penal code.

And that sentence is further increased by four years,

pursuant to section 12 through to 2.95 of the penal code.

Punishment for that enhancement is state,

pursuant to rule 4.447 of the California Rules of Court,

until the successful completion of the sentence

I happen to post and permanently thereafter.

Now, when you add up all those figures,

it equates to 16 years in prison,

but because of the fixed agreement in the plea deal,

the sentence for Hernandez remains at 15 years.

And that also includes restitution in Emilio's death,

cost to her surviving son.

And this is an amount that's going to be determined

by appropriate court later on.

But I just want to leave with one more aspect to this.

The judge left the court with these final words

before remanding Hernandez into custody.

So we turn the page now on this chapter.

And the question is, where does everybody go from here?

And I hope there will be some peace for everyone,

because that's the only way to move forward.

I would be going to prison.

I already have a life sentence because of the loss of the media.

I hope that as everyone leaves here today,

that what isn't forgotten is, and it won't be.

Emilio won't be forgotten.

But this can't happen again.

And that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar.

Everybody, thank you so much for joining us.

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I'll see you next time, everybody.