MIAMI – A Miami judge ordered a former day care owner to spend four months in jail Tuesday after pleading no contest to a manslaughter charge in the death of a 2-year-old boy in a hot van.
The judge also ordered Karen Julissa Aviles to serve 10 years of probation in the death of Angel Matute-Chavez, the Miami Herald reported.
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Aviles, 41, picked up the toddler, his 8-year-old brother and other children in September 2016 and took them to the Vision of Life Academy in Miami.
She later told police that she rushed inside the building because she was late to a meeting. She said she asked another employee to get the children from the van. More than six hours later, an employee found the boy inside the van.
Paramedics said he was bleeding from the nose and ears, and an autopsy determined he died of heatstroke.
“These years would have been the most beautiful of our lives,” his mother, Miriam Chavez, said in a letter read to Circuit Judge Laura Stuzin. “The emptiness Angel left in our lives has been impossible to fill. ... Angel’s siblings are not the same children they used to be when Angel was with us.”
The day care was not licensed to transport children, court records said.
As part of the agreement, Aviles will not be allowed to work caring for or supervising children, according to prosecutor Jenisse Grace.
Simon Steckel, Aviles’ defense attorney, said the plea deal was less risky than trial.
“She maintains she is innocent despite the plea agreement,” he said.