IS CANALES THAT GOOD, OR D.A.'s OFFICE THAT BAD? PROBATION IN CAR HEAT-DEATH OF EIGHT-MONTH OLD

By Juan Montoya
The whole county courthouse is a buzz over the deferred adjudication and two-year probation sentence given to a 27-year-old woman who forgot her 8-month old baby was in her parked car with the temperature hovering in the 90s.
The case was before in the 445th District Court Monday morning but Cameron County District Attorney Asst. DAs and defense attorney Rick Canales could not agree on a plea bargain for Erica Lynn Munoz, of Brownsville.
State District Judge Rene De Coss denied Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz’s request for 30 days jail time to be served on weekends as part of Munoz’s plea deal agreement. De Cos said Saenz, not the court, is the one responsible for fighting for getting justice for the child.
Muñoz was charged with criminal negligent homicide in the death of 8-month-old son Jaziel who she found unresponsive in his baby seat in the back seat of her 2007 Nissan parked in her driveway without any shade.
When she called 911, she trold the dispatcher and then officers who arrived at the scene that the boy was totally wet and that he was unconscious and foaming at the mouth.
Later investigations revealed that she had told officers she had returned from having lunch with her husband Jose and had parked in her driveway. Earlier, she said she had been at her husband's office while the boy was with his grandmother preparing a resume because she was stressed out working at a local charter school where she worked as a kindergarten teacher.
The child was taken to local hospital where he later died. Investigators obtained enough probable cause to obtain the warrants and charged Munoz with Criminal Negligent Homicide. The cause of death of the child was vehicular hypothermia, a term used to describe a heat stroke caused by excessive heat in a confined space such as a car.
At the time, her bond was set at $10,000.
But a check of the case docket that Canales – as part of a plea bargain – had reduced the charge from a state jail felony Class A misdemeanor on a Nolo Contendre (no contest) plea. Cos set her sentence to deferred adjudication and for two years probation.
This did not go over well with many commenters who said people with much lesser offenses –usch as possession of marijuana – often got years in jail.
This did not sit well with the original commenter, who posted to Saenz that she had "admired you for some time" but that his request for a 30-day jail time was "ridiculous."
At the time of the incident on September 11, 2014, the National Weather Service in Brownsville reported that the temperature at about 4 p.m., when Muñoz said she had found the baby in the back of her car, hovered at 93 degrees and the temperature index was 105. Muñoz told the officers that she realized the baby wasn't in the house when the phone rang and she started looking for him inside. She said he had been left alone in the hot car for approximately 20 minutes.
When officers arrived at the scene to process the evidence at the site, they placed a thermometer in the baby seat and closed the door. After 10 minutes, the thermometer read 120.
Baby Jaziiel was one of 31 heat-stroke victims in the United States in 2014.
According to court documents, when offices questioned her at the Brownsville Police Department, Muñoz told them; "It's my fault. There is no excuse. I forgot Jaziel in the car." and told her husband she was "the worst mother in the world."
During the court hearing, the local daily said Munoz’s husband and the deceased baby’s father made a strong plea for his wife, asking the court to give her probation. He argued sending her to jail would further hurt the family emotionally and financially.
Saenz said anyone who sees a child or pet locked inside a hot car can break a window in order to rescue them without fear of repercussions. He added no time is safe amount to leave a child in a hot car.
And if they do, the DA's office will probably agree to probation.