Latest news with #BriantReyesEstrada
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Yahoo
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.'
Daily Mail
15-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Illegal migrant who let son, 6, melt to death in 99F car was out on BAIL
An illegal migrant who was out on bail after being arrested two weeks earlier has been charged with murder for leaving his young son in a hot car. Briant Reyes Estrada, 27, is accused of leaving his six-year-old son to melt inside a hot car under the sweltering California sun. The father allegedly left the boy in the vehicle in the parking lot of the Paso Robles Inn on Saturday. The temperature there reached a peak of 99 degrees that day, reported San Luis Obispo Tribune meteorologist John Lindsey. Reyes Estrada brought the boy to Twin Cities Hospital in Templeton ,where he was pronounced dead, and the father was arrested, according to Paso Robles Police. The U.S. Attorney's Office shared that Reyes Estrada is an undocumented migrant who had been arrested two weeks before his son's death. An ICE detainer had been issued after his first arrest, but he was out on bail because of California state law. 'I'm angry that this young boy needlessly died,' San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow told KSBY. Dow posted on X that SB 54, or the 'California values act,' is the reason Reyes Estrada was allowed out on bail. 'Reyes Estrada had been arrested and booked into the San Luis Obispo County Jail on April 29, 2025, after which United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued an order to detain the inmate at the county jail,' Dow said. 'However, California's state 'sanctuary' law prohibited our county jail from detaining the individual on that detainer. 'Had Mr. Reyes Estrada been properly detained, he would not have been free and able to do what he is alleged to have done to his child on May 10th. This child's death would very likely not have happened.' He was arrested in April and charged with false impersonation, forging a driver's license and embezzlement for a February incident. 'The prior arrest for this individual was for a property crime where he was taken to County Jail and later was legally eligible to make bail and was released from custody,' SLO County Sheriff Ian Parkinson told the local news station. 'This is an example of the complete failure of SB 54 in the state of California. SB 54 prohibits California Sheriff's from turning over somebody to ICE on a detainer. 'We also cannot speak with ICE unless the arrestee has a conviction for a qualifying offense.' Reyes Estrada was charged with second-degree murder and child abuse for his son's death. He pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to be back in court on May 22 for a pre-preliminary hearing. 'To charge him with murder under the circumstances that I'm aware of [is] very ambitious of this district attorney's office,' Reyes Estrada's attorney, Patrick Fisher, told KSBY. 'So, they have a lot that they're going to have to prove, and you know, it's my job to test their evidence. Can they prove it? And they've really set the bar high for themselves here.' The Tribune reported that this is not the first time Reyes Estrada had left his child in the car. Matt Griffith, his former supervisor at the Fireside Inn on Moonstone Beach in Cambria, said Reyes Estrada left his son in a car multiple times and Child Welfare Services was called at least twice. 'Supposedly, he didn't have a babysitter and he needed to work, so he left his kid in the car while he worked,' Griffith said.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Yahoo
California father arrested after 6-year-old son dies in hot car
A 6-year-old boy died after being left inside a vehicle amid record-breaking temperatures over the weekend in Paso Robles, California, authorities have confirmed. The city is 200 miles up the Pacific Coast from Los Angeles. Police said they were notified of the child's death shortly before 6 p.m. Saturday evening. Detectives believe the boy's father, 27-year-old Briant ReyesEstrada, had parked his vehicle in the lot at the Paso Robles Inn for several hours before he brought the child to Twin Cities Hospital in Templeton, where the boy was pronounced dead. The temperature reached a high of 99 degrees Fahrenheit in Paso Robles on Saturday. ReyesEstrada was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder and willful harm or injury to a child likely to produce great bodily injury, according to local media reports. Hotel employees told KSBY that ReyesEstrada had been working at the Paso Robles Inn that day. The incident marks at least the third child to die in a hot car in the United States so far this year, according to Kids and Car Safety. On May 7, a father dropped one child off at school but told police he forgot to drop his 2-year-old off at a babysitter, according to media reports. The child wasn't found until hours later. On March 18, a 4-month-old baby died in Lakewood, New Jersey, after accidentally being left in a car for a few hours when the father of the child forgot to drop the baby off at his babysitter's and instead went to work. All three incidents highlight the persistent and deadly danger of heat inside vehicles, even in spring when outside temperatures may not seem extreme. Since 1990, at least 1,127 children have died in hot cars nationwide, and more than 7,500 others have survived with injuries ranging from mild to severe, according to data from Kids and Car Safety. The vast majority of victims-nearly 9 in 10-are under the age of 3. In over half of all fatal cases, children were unknowingly left behind by a parent or caregiver. Experts stress that it can happen to anyone, regardless of routine, background or intentions. The inside of a car can heat up much faster than most people realize, even if the windows are cracked. In just 10 minutes, the temperature inside can soar to dangerous levels, with about 80% of that heat buildup happening in those first few minutes, according to Kids and Car Safety. Cracking the windows doesn't make a meaningful difference; it doesn't slow the heating process or lower the final temperature. In fact, children have died from heatstroke in cars when it was only 60 degrees outside. That's because a child's body overheats three to five times faster than an adult's, making them especially vulnerable, even on mild days. You can find more information on the danger of hot cars for children here.
