Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - 3-Year-Old Girl Dies in Hot Car With Mom Passed Out Drunk: DA

Episode Date: September 12, 2024

Ily Ruiz died last Friday after a family member found her and her mom unconscious in their SUV near their home in Anaheim, California. Police said Sandra Hernandez, Ily's mother, was found in the vehicle with her daughter and empty alcohols bottles. Hernandez now faces criminal charges. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy reveals new details about the case and how it's not the first time the family has been hit by tragedy in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Get 50% off of confidential background reports at https://www.truthfinder.com/lccrimefix and access information about almost anyone!Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guests: Kimberly Edds https://www.facebook.com/OCDAToddSpitzerSgt. Matt Sutter https://www.facebook.com/AnaheimPDCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. I wish I was making this up, right? But no, man, my daughter really is dead due to the negligence of her mother. That's Juan Ruiz. He's a father in unspeakable pain, and he's grieving after his three-year-old daughter died in a hot car, and now the girl's mother is behind bars. This is a terrible tragedy, and our thoughts are with the victim's family and everybody

who was involved in this incident. I'm going to tell you about the sad and tragic case of Ailey Ruiz and why her death is the second tragedy her family has endured. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. I feel like I've told you recently about way too many cases like Ailey Ruiz's children dying after being left in hot cars. As a mom, it just hits me in the gut. Our kids are the most important people in our lives, and it's our job to make sure that they are always safe. But last Friday, police in Anaheim, California, say that didn't happen with Ailey Ruiz. Anaheim police officers in Anaheim Fire and Rescue responded to the 1300 block of North Fashion Lane in the city of Anaheim. They were responding to a medical emergency call for

service. When they got there, they found a parent family member working, giving first aid to an unconscious three-year-old little girl. Apparently she had been pulled out of a vehicle, which was a white Ford Expedition. The officers took over first aid measures until paramedics could arrive. And while they were doing that, they noticed the second unconscious adult female in the same vehicle. They also gave her first aid right away. The little girl, actually both of them were transported to local hospitals. Unfortunately, the young three-year-old girl passed away and died. The preliminary cause of death has been determined to be complications related to heat stroke.

Now, the final autopsy report, it isn't complete yet, but heat stroke seems like the likely cause of death for Eiley. Sergeant Sutter described just how hot it was last Friday. The outside air temperature at that time of the call was approximately 104 degrees. It was a very humid day. I don't know the temperature inside the car based on open source research I did. Temperatures inside the vehicle could reach above 150 degrees. The actual temperature, I'm sure something that the investigators in the corner will look at to determine the cause of death and the time of death.

Now you heard Sergeant Sutter say there was a second person inside that locked SUV, an unconscious woman that was Aili Ruiz's mother, Sandra Hernandez. He told me they also found empty alcohol bottles. So it raises the question, was Sandra Hernandez so intoxicated and drunk that she simply passed out? I'm sure it's the number one thing on everybody's mind right now. And I can tell you that we served a search warrant on both the vehicle and her residence. And there were alcohol bottles found inside the vehicle. I can't tell you which kind. I don't know how many. I don't know the contents, whether it was full or empty. That's all part of the investigation. And regarding her level of intoxication, if any, that will be made available when the report is complete.

And at that time, at this time, I can't say what her level was. You'll hear more about Sandra Hernandez and the alcohol found in her car when the DA's office joins me later on. Sandra Hernandez is now in jail in Orange County, California. She faces charges of involuntary manslaughter and felony child neglect. Meanwhile, Eiley's father, Juan Ruiz, he posted a video on Facebook and he is distraught. I wish I was making this up, right? But no, man, my daughter really is dead due to the negligence of her mother. Right now, my five-year-old son is with his aunt. She's got a temporary placement for him.

I got to go to court on the 11th to see if the state will give me my son back. He's the only thing I have left besides my dog right here. Now, since posting that video, Juan Ruiz has come out and defended Sandra Hernandez, calling her a good mother and saying, of course, she would never do this on purpose, and that she turned to alcohol after suffering mental health issues following the loss of the couple's older sons in 2012. Nine-year-old Cyrus and five-year-old Alaris were killed when a drunk driver ran over their tent during a camping trip in North Dakota, as I mentioned back in 2012. It makes the case just absolutely more worse than it actually is. Ruiz's family has started a GoFundMe to raise money for Ailey's funeral, her aunt writing,

It's still hard to wrap our minds around the thought Ailey is no longer with us. She has been tragically taken from our family in such an unfathomable way, and all we want to do is ease the burden and pain her father Juan and the family are going through at this time. Your safety and the safety of your kids is the most important thing in your life. You can't roll the dice with it. So you need to know who you're surrounding yourself with each day. Truthfinder.com is a website that can help you determine whether the people you're with are a friend or possibly an enemy. Here's how it works. Log on to truthfinder.com and put in a person's name. You're going to get search results that include things like past addresses, criminal records, relatives, and social media accounts. I use Truthfinder all of the time to research the

cases that I cover, and I use it personally to research the people that I meet each day, especially since I have a son. And one thing that I love about Truthfinder is that it will show you the addresses of registered sex offenders who live in your neighborhood. So right now, I have a great deal for Crime Fix viewers and listeners. Get 50% off of confidential background reports. Just log on to www.truthfinder.com slash lccrimefix and start accessing information about almost anyone. I want to bring in Kimberly Edds with the Orange County District Attorney's Office. Kimberly, you know, we were just talking. This is the second time in a week I've talked to you about a case involving a child who's died in your jurisdiction.

It's just horrible. The first was Chance Crawford, totally different type of case. But this is a tragedy. This is little Eileen Ruiz, who has died. And the allegation is that her mother was intoxicated and I guess passed out. And she's in the vehicle with her daughter and the daughter dies. Yeah. Last Friday, family members of Sandra Hernandez-Cazares were called by her son's elementary school. He had just started kindergarten because no one came to pick him up from kindergarten

that Friday afternoon, and they were unable to get a hold of his mother. And so they began looking for her everywhere and found her vehicle parked near their apartment in Anaheim and looked inside, were able to see her and her young daughter inside the locked Ford Expedition. And they had to break out the window. Temperatures were about 104 degrees at the time. And when her mother was taken to the hospital, she was unconscious when they found her. She had a blood alcohol level several hours later of 0.3, which is almost four times the legal limit

here in California to drive a motor vehicle. And it's just an absolutely tragic situation for a little three-year-old who really just couldn't escape the heat., it's just it's something that I think resonates with everyone. We've been in a heat wave for quite a bit of time now here in California. And it's just something that everyone thinks about is making sure that you don't leave a child. You don't leave an animal. You don't leave anything in a car just because of the extreme danger. Oh, my goodness. Point three. I mean, that is astronomical. I mean, is there any indication of just how long they were in the vehicle? I mean, that's 0.3 makes me think passed out, out cold. I mean, you would have to be to stay in a vehicle that long without coming

to. So were they in there for a really long time? Yeah, the doctors at the hospital estimate that the little girl had passed away about three or four hours before her body was discovered in that vehicle. So we believe that they were in the vehicle for an extended amount of time without anybody knowing. The vehicle had very darkly tinted windows that probably made it even more difficult for anybody to know that there was something wrong inside of that car. And they were parked just outside of their apartment, just steps away from their apartment. It's confounding to me that, you know, of course, Eileen was a little three-year-old girl. She's a small child. Mom survives. She's able to survive being in there for several hours. She's facing an involuntary manslaughter charge and a child neglect charge. Could more charges be added

later at the grand jury? Does the DA's office anticipate that? I mean, we're still reviewing all the facts of exactly what happened. There are some things that we're still piecing together. But I think the charges that she's facing of involuntary manslaughter as well as child abuse resulting in GBI, which is obviously the death of the toddler, she faces a maximum sentence of 12 years at this point. And I just think this is a very important reminder of how susceptible children are to heat. We see these stories over and over and over again of babies and toddlers being exposed to the elements, either left in a car inadvertently, just because a parent's distracted or something like that. And we just have to remember that their bodies don't respond to those temperatures the way that an adult can. And they can die very, very, very quickly. Well, it is heartbreaking.

And I just can't even imagine. I mean, I've read some things about Sandra Hernandez apparently turning to alcohol, breathing because she had two other children apparently who were killed by a drunk driver. I mean, there's a lot of layers here. But this is certainly a tragedy. And I said it earlier in the show, we've seen way too many cases recently of people having children in the car. This one is particularly unique, though. I mean, we have mom in the vehicle. This isn't where one of those cases where a mother or a father leaves a child in a car and simply thinks they dropped the child off at daycare. She was in there with the child.

I'm sure your office has never seen something like that. Yeah, I mean, we don't have a case that is in our office right now that we can recall of anything very, you know, the similar fact pattern. But I just think it, you know, you mentioned the fact that she had lost two prior children, a five-year-old and a nine-year-old when they were run over while they were sleeping in a tent on a camping trip in the Midwest. And, you know, that's just something that you can never recover from. And it's just heartbreaking that now not only she has to live with the fact that she's never going to see those little boys grow up, and she's never going to see her daughter grow up because of the choices that she made. Yeah, it's awful.

Well, Kimberly Edds, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you. I want to turn back now to Anaheim Police Sergeant Matt Sutter, who wanted to stress the importance of never, ever leaving a child unattended in a car. And of course, this case is somewhat unusual since the mother, Sandra Hernandez, passed out in the car? I think it's pretty unusual. I don't recall a case like this in my career. I can tell you based on open source research that I did, roughly 40 children die in this manner every year across the nation, which is 40 too many. I'd like to remind everybody, never leave your child alone in the car, not even for a minute. It doesn't have to be

overwhelming temperatures. I mean, even at 60 degrees, even with clouds in the sky, given enough time, a car can heat to levels that are dangerous and could cause serious injury or even death to small children. It's not clear whether anyone saw Sandra Hernandez and Eileen in the SUV before they were found, but Sergeant Sutter has advice in case someone ever sees a person in a hot car. Here in the state of California, a law was passed in 2021, just a few years ago, but Sergeant Sutter has advice in case someone ever sees a person in a hot car. Here in the state of California, a law was passed in 2021, just a few years ago, that you can force your way into a car to rescue a child who's overheating, and you can't be held liable criminally or civilly.

My recommendation is if you come across a situation like this, I don't care what state you're in, call 911 first, get the paramedics started. And then based on the circumstances, take what action you feel is necessary. If you're acting in good faith to help this person, you're doing the right thing. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Janette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.