A California mother accepted a plea deal after leaving her infant son to die in a hot car while she underwent lip filler injections, according to court records.
Kern County Superior Court Judge Charles Brehmer said Wednesday that 20-year-old Maya Hernandez pleaded no contest in the death of her one-year-old son, Amillio Gutierrez. (RELATED: Dana Eden, Producer Of Israeli Spy Drama ‘Tehran,’ Dies Mysteriously During Filming)
Hernandez pleaded no contest Feb. 11 to involuntary manslaughter and two counts of child cruelty after prosecutors said she left Amillio and his two-year-old brother strapped in a parked car for several hours on June 29, 2025, while she underwent the cosmetic procedure, according to ABC Action News.
Amillio was hospitalized with a body temperature of 107 degrees and later died, while his two-year-old brother survived, prosecutors said.
In exchange for Hernandez’s no-contest plea, the Kern County District Attorney’s Office agreed to drop first-degree murder charges, the outlet reported. She is scheduled to appear in court March 5 for sentencing and faces up to 15 years in prison under the agreement. The plea follows a mistrial declared in December after jurors deadlocked on the murder charge.
Hernandez’s defense attorneys argued prosecutors failed to prove she acted with conscious disregard for her children’s lives.
A GoFundMe page created by Amillio’s aunt to cover funeral expenses said the boy’s father was incarcerated and learned of his son’s death while in prison.
Maya Hernandez pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter in an agreement with prosecutors for 15 years in prison. #CourtTV What do YOU think? ⚖️👇 https://t.co/JT4BG05iyN
— Court TV (@CourtTV) February 12, 2026
Savanah Gutierrez, Amillio’s aunt, paid tribute to the boy on the fundraising page, writing that he was “loved by so many.”
“We are all heartbroken that we will never see his beautiful smile again,” she wrote. “His brother will no longer have car rides or be able to see his little precious baby brother again.”