A California mother has accepted a plea deal after leaving her two young sons inside a hot car for more than two hours while she went inside a medical spa for cosmetic lip injections, a decision that led to the death of her one-year-old child.
Maya Hernandez, 20, pleaded guilty on Wednesday in connection with the June 2025 incident outside the Always Beautiful Med Spa in Bakersfield. Hernandez had left both children strapped into their car seats inside a 2022 Toyota Corolla hybrid as the outside temperature reached a dangerous 101 degrees.
When paramedics arrived, they found her one-year-old son, Amillio Gutierrez, foaming at the mouth and convulsing. He was rushed to the hospital but died within hours. His two-year-old brother, Mateo, survived only after staff members noticed the children, pulled him from the vehicle, carried him inside the spa, and attempted to cool him down by pouring cold water on him.
Experts later stated that, with the extreme heat, the temperature inside the car could have reached 143 degrees. Authorities said Amillio’s body temperature reached a deadly 107 degrees. Hernandez originally faced multiple charges, including second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, and two counts of child endangerment, Court TV reported.
However, in December 2025, a jury found her guilty of child abuse but could not reach a verdict on the murder and manslaughter counts. After that partial verdict, Hernandez agreed to a plea deal. Under the agreement, the murder charge was dropped in exchange for her pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter.
She is now expected to be sentenced to 15 years in prison on March 5 and will receive two strikes on her record. Kern County chief deputy district attorney Eric Smith explained why prosecutors chose to accept the deal following the mistrial on the murder count.
‘We did a review of: is there anything that we could potentially do differently in a second trial? We also put great weight into what the jurors didn’t provide in this case,’ Smith said in a statement. ‘Ultimately, it was a mistrial for count one, the murder count. We took into account that 12 members of our jury heard all of the evidence, and ultimately, it was split towards not guilty.
‘So based on that, we decided to enter into settlement negotiations, and that’s what she pled to today.’ Hernandez’s older sister told ABC23 she was not surprised by the outcome and questioned whether the original murder charge was appropriate.
‘I always thought this is what was going to happen. ‘I didn’t really understand the first-degree [murder] charge. I thought that was a little excessive given the amount of intent. ‘She didn’t have any intent for the kids to get hurt. Obviously, she did a neglectful thing, and it led to my nephew’s death, but I don’t believe she had any intent on that happening,’ she told the outlet.
Police said Hernandez claimed she left the vehicle running with the air conditioning on, but investigators later found the car had an automatic shut-off feature. They also said the interior was extremely hot when responders arrived.
Surveillance footage reportedly captured spa staff and bystanders frantically pouring water on the children in a desperate effort to save them. Investigators also said a nurse recalled Hernandez asking about bringing the children inside, and staff offered to keep them in the waiting room. Despite that option, Hernandez left them in the car.
During the case, prosecutor Stephanie Taconi argued Hernandez “chose vanity” over her children, saying ‘there are no accidents here’ only ‘intentional actions.’ The defence described the incident as a “terrible, awful mistake,” claiming Hernandez believed the air conditioning was running and that she left the children with cookies and milk.
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