California mom gets 15 years after toddler died in hot car while she had cosmetic work at spa

KERN COUNTY, Calif. (TCN) -- A mother has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after her 1-year-old son died in a hot car while she was undergoing a cosmetic procedure at a medical spa. 

Court TV reports 20-year-old Maya Hernandez pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter in February. This plea followed a mistrial after a jury could not come to a unanimous decision about second-degree murder or involuntary manslaughter charges. On March 5, she was sentenced to 15 years in prison and two strikes on her record, in line with the deal she reached with prosecutors.

According to Law & Crime, initial reports said Hernandez had traveled to a medical spa to get lip injections, but a witness testified in court that she went to the spa for a nonsurgical Brazilian butt lift procedure.

At trial, Hernandez testified that she intentionally left her sons, 1-year-old Amillio Gutierrez and 2-year-old Mateo Gutierrez, in the car with snacks on June 29, 2025, while she went into the medical spa for her appointment, according to Court TV. She said she left the car running and the air conditioner set to 60 degrees, but the car reportedly shut off automatically after an hour. 

Although court documents indicated the procedure was supposed to take 15 to 20 minutes, she was in the medical spa for more than two hours. Law & Crime reports staff at the medical spa testified they were backed up that day, leading to the delay in starting the appointment. 

Hernandez never checked on her children or mentioned she had brought them along, according to Law & Crime. When she returned to the car after the appointment, Amillio Gutierrez was foaming at the mouth and seizing. Medical spa employees brought Mateo Gutierrez into the spa to cool him down while Hernandez waited for police. Amillio Gutierrez was transported to a hospital and found to have an internal body temperature of 107 degrees, and he was pronounced dead.

At the child’s funeral, his grandmother Katie Gutierrez said, “It’s hard to speak when it feels like your heart has been taken out of your chest,” per KFSN.

The children’s father, Rosendo Gutierrez, was incarcerated at the time of the incident, Bakersfield Now reports. Following the sentencing, he said “I think I let [the boys] down because I wasn’t there to save them.” According to KFSN, while incarcerated, he watched his son’s funeral on Zoom.

Hernandez has served more than 280 days of her sentence during the trial process, KSFN reports.

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