Father accused of leaving SLO County child in hot car faces federal fraud charge
The father of the 6-year-old boy who died after being left in a hot car during a Paso Robles heat wave now faces a federal fraud charge.
Briant Reyes Estrada, 27, was arrested on May 11 after his child died at the hospital on May 10 of suspected heat-related injuries. The San Luis Obispo County District Attorney's Office charged him with murder and willful harm to a child on May 13.
Reyes Estrada pleaded not guilty to the charges in court on May 14.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Attorney's Office, which earlier said Reyes Estrada was undocumented and in the country illegally, filed a federal charge of fraud and misuse of visas, permits and other documents against Reyes Estrada, according to the complaint.
The felony could result in up to 10 years in federal prison, U.S. Attorney's Office spokesperson Ciaran McEvoy said in an email to The Tribune.
Reyes Estrada's attorney Patrick Fisher did not respond to The Tribune's requests for comment by 5 p.m. on Wednesday.
Father accused of leaving SLO County child in hot car enters plea in murder case
The U.S. Attorney's Office alleged that Reyes Estrada committed fraud and misuse of visas, permits and other documents in San Luis Obispo County in April and August 2023, the complaint said.
The complaint included an affidavit from a U.S. Department of Homeland Security deportation officer based in Ventura County, whose name was redacted from the document.
Born in Donato Guerra, Mexico, Reyes Estrada allegedly entered the United States without the proper documents, according to the affidavit.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers saw Reyes Estrada near Naco, Arizona, on Feb. 23, 2022, then took his photo and fingerprints at the U.S. Border Patrol Station in Bisbee, Arizona, before deporting him to Mexico, the affidavit said.
At some point, Reyes Estrada returned to the United States.
After learning about the murder charge against Reyes Estrada, the federal agency Homeland Security Investigations researched Reyes Estrada in law enforcement systems and databases.
Officers learned that Reyes Estrada had no approved or pending visas, applications or petitions that would allow him to live or work in the United States.
He had not been issued an alien number or Social Security number, and he 'appeared to have no claim to lawful permanent resident status or United States citizenship,' the affidavit said.
The federal charge is related to identification documents Reyes Estrada used to work at hotels in San Luis Obispo County.
On Aug. 1, 2023, Reyes Estrada was hired at Pacifica Hotels as a general maintenance engineer, according to records provided by Pacifica Hotels.
'On the application, the third question asked, 'Do you have the legal right to work in the country where you are applying?' With a yes/no answer choice, Reyes Estrada selected 'yes' as the answer,' the affidavit said.
On his I-9 form, Reyes Estrada offered a Social Security number that ended with the digits '9585' that was lawfully issued to a person with the initials J.F., the affidavit said. Estrada electronically signed that form on Aug. 1, 2023.
The Paficia Hotels W-4 form from Aug. 1, 2023, 'bore the same name, address, Social Security number and date of birth as the form I-9,' the affidavit said.
Reyes Estrada was fired from Pacific Hotels on Oct. 3 'because of multiple incidents regarding violating company policy related to filming on company grounds,' the affidavit said.
'The records also showed Reyes Estrada locking a female employee in an engineering room and turning off the lights, then laughing while the female employee was trying to leave the room,' the affidavit said.
The hotel temporarily suspended him from his position while investigating the allegations, but Reyes Estrada allegedly returned to the hotel.
'This event culminated to a point where deputies from the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office had to intervene and remove Reyes Estrada from the property,' the affidavit said.
Reyes Estrada was previously hired as a housekeeper at the Bluebird Inn in Cambria on April 10, 2023. His W-4 from the Bluebird Inn included the 'same name, address, Social Security number and date of birth as the form I-9 and form W-4 from Pacifica Hotels,' the affidavit said.
Homeland Security Investigations officers discovered that Reyes Estrada used a lawful permanent resident card, also known as a green card, that 'contained several discrepancies,' the affidavit said.
The alien number on the card had been issued to a person born in El Salvador known as C.L.M.
The card also listed Reyes Estrada as a spouse of a United States citizen, but officers did not find an application submitted by him for a lawful permanent resident card or any immigrant visa or permanent resident status.
Additionally, the signature below the photograph did not match his signature on the W-4 Form for the Bluebird Inn, the affidavit said.
Reyes Estrada is alleged to have left his child in his vehicle in the parking lot of the Paso Robles Inn on Saturday, May 10, according to the Paso Robles Police Department.
The temperature there reached a peak of 99 degrees on Saturday, according to meteorologist John Lindsey, breaking a record set in 1997.
It is unclear at this time exactly how long the child may have been left in the vehicle, and Paso Robles Police Chief Damian Nord told The Tribune the agency is awaiting an autopsy to determine the boy's cause of death.
Officers responded to the hospital around 6 p.m. and found the child had been driven to the hospital by his father, Reyes Estrada.
Reyes Estrada was previously charged with misdemeanor false impersonation, misdemeanor forging a driver's license and two misdemeanor counts of embezzlement in February.
The U.S. Attorney's Office said Wednesday that Reyes Estrada was undocumented and could have been detained on April 29, when he was arrested for the February misdemeanor charges, but that California's sanctuary state laws prevented the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office from holding Reyes Estrada for Immigration Customs and Enforcement.
Reyes Estrada's attorney Patrick Fisher previously told The Tribune that the U.S. Attorney's Office and other people were using the child's death as a prop for political rants expressing frustrations with immigration policy, calling the debate 'shameful.'
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