HOUSTON – Nearly one year later, a mother has now been charged in the death of her 2-month-old son after she left him in a hot vehicle outside a southeast Houston mental health clinic, according to the Houston Police Department.
Gabriela Elyzabeth Deras, 22, was charged with murder in the death of Ethan Rosa Deras, 2 months old, in August 2023. She was arrested Friday and booked into the Harris County Jail.
Her bond has been set at $50,000.
Here’s what the investigation revealed
Police were called to 5901 Long Drive at 3:25 p.m. on Aug. 8, 2023. The incident happened in the parking lot of the Harris Center, a mental health and developmental disability clinic.
The mother arrived at the clinic for a visit sometime after noon. Police said she took her 4-year-old inside with her.
PREVIOUS: 2-month-old boy dies after being left in hot vehicle outside SE Houston mental health clinic
At some point, she said she found her Ethan unresponsive and took him inside as well, where nurses performed CPR and tried to save him. Ethan was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Deras left her son in the car for approximately three hours while she was inside for an appointment, according to court records. When medics recovered the infant, his internal body temperature had reached 108 degrees and he had solar burns on his face.
According to investigators, Deras did not have a consistent story when they interviewed her.
Further investigation and an autopsy by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences determined baby Ethan’s manner of death to be homicide. The cause was determined to be hyperthermia earlier this year but it still took several months before the murder charge was filed.
“We don’t do a rush to judgement,” said Assistant District Attorney Edward Appelbaum. “We want to go through all the evidence. We want to know all the facts, and then we want to make the appropriate decision at that point. So that’s why it took a long time.”
He is prosecuting the case and said it’s the first of its kind in Harris County in at least the last five years.
“It’s actually kind of rare,” he said. “There are times when a tragedy is a criminal offense and when there’s an accident, it could be a criminal offense, and it’s equal justice under the law.”
Prosecutors will not have to prove if the death was intentional but said that it’s still considered murder because the death happened while Deras was committing other felonies, including reckless injury to a child or abandoning a child.
“There has to be some sort of accountability because there is someone who did die,” Appelbaum said.
Rosa Deras was one of 29 kids to die in hot cars last year, according to data from Kids and Car Safety. Texas leads the nation with 156 hot car deaths since 1990.
“The worst thing that any parent could do is think that this won’t happen to them,” Kids and Car Safety Director Amber Rollins said.
A study by the organization found that only about half of parents are charged in these situations and 32% end up convicted in cases across the country, with mothers tending to be treated more harshly by the courts.
“There’s really no consistency whatsoever in how parents are treated, Rollins said. “It makes other parents think that this only happens to bad parents who are criminals, and nothing could be further from the truth.”
Rollins recommended parents put a stuffed animal in the backseat, then move it to the front seat after their child is placed in the backseat as a reminder when they get out of the car to get their child as well.
Tip to prevent hot car deaths: