A Texas mother has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for deliberately leaving her baby inside her car on a sweltering summer day — as it emerged she made a “pit stop” at a McDonald’s on her way to the hospital, where her baby was pronounced dead.
Vanessa Esquivel, 28, was convicted of first-degree murder for leaving her 15-month-old child inside her car for several hours while she worked a shift at a spa in Frisco, about 25 miles north of Dallas, on August 16 of last year
Frisco police said at the time that she “intentionally” left the tot in her car even though “she knew” it “did not have working air conditioning with an outside temperature of at least 95 degrees.”
“Children that small should never be left unattended in a car, especially in the summertime and especially in Texas,” lead prosecutor Ashleigh Woodall told People after the mom’s conviction and sentencing.
“Every year this happens, and we hate it. Jury is sending a message.”
Esquivel told police she didn’t go to work that day and had been driving the toddler around because the air conditioning in her car wasn’t working.
However, police confirmed with the Hand & Stone Massage and Facial Spa that she had worked a shift from approximately 1:45 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. that day.
The mom eventually took her heat-afflicted toddler to Medical City Plano hospital — but only after the pit stop at a McDonald’s, a source close to the investigation confirmed to People.
On a recorded phone call to a coworker the next day, Esquivel admitted she had been “between a rock and a hard place” when she left her son in the car because she had been unable to find childcare.
The mom was quoted as saying “the incident was her fault” — and she believed she’d be arrested in his death, according to Fox 4 News.
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