HOUSTON (1080 KRLD)- A woman in Houston is charged with murder, nearly a year to the day after her baby died in a hot car.
Police say 22-year-old Gabriela Elyzabeth Deras left two-month-old Ethan in a car last August eight. The outside temperature was over 100. She parked outside the Harris Center, which is a mental health and development disability clinic, and entered with her four-year-old.
About three hours later she found the infant in the car and unresponsive. She rushed him into the clinic. Nurses performed CPR and he was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. His body temperature had reached 108.
An autopsy determined the cause of death was murder and Deras has been charged with homicide. Police say she changed her story several times during questioning. At one point she told investigators she had left the air conditioning on, at another she said she thought the baby was with his grandmother.
Deras was arrested last Friday without incident and then booked into the Harris County Jail with bond set at $50,000.
According to the non-profit Kids and Car Safety, Texas leads the nation in the number of hot car deaths.
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