A California father is facing criminal charges a month after his car drifted away in a flood and claimed the life of his 2-year-old son, authorities said.
Police said 26-year-old Brandon Padilla-Aguilera was taken into custody on Oct. 17, weeks after his vehicle was carried off by rushing water on West Main Street in Barstow.
Investigators believe Padilla-Aguilera drove directly into the flood despite dangerous conditions, according to reports from ABC 7.
His car was swept into a nearby wash north of the roadway, forcing both him and his toddler son, Xavier, to escape into the current.
Barstow police said the father and son became separated in the violent water.
Emergency responders from multiple agencies, joined by civilian volunteers, searched the area through the night.
Xavier’s body was discovered the next day, Sept. 19, officials confirmed.
Over the next month, detectives conducted a detailed investigation, interviewing witnesses and gathering physical evidence related to the case.
According to the department, Padilla-Aguilera was arrested at his residence and initially booked on a murder charge. However, that count was later dismissed during his arraignment.
The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office ultimately reduced the charges, accusing Padilla-Aguilera of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and child abuse under circumstances likely to cause great bodily harm or death.
“After our office reviewed the evidence and facts submitted, we determined that the appropriate charges that we believe we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt are the ones filed,” the DA’s office said in a statement.
Padilla-Aguilera entered a plea of not guilty through his court-appointed attorney. He remains in custody on a $200,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court next week.
While the California case sparked grief and debate over parental responsibility, another disturbing story unfolded in Florida, where a father allegedly continued delivering food after realizing his nonverbal, autistic son had gone missing from the car.
Altamonte Springs Police said Jeremy Rouse, a food delivery driver, has been charged with child neglect after bystanders found his young son naked and wandering near an interstate entrance ramp around 11 p.m. on Oct. 16.
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According to FOX 35 Orlando, Rouse admitted to officers that he noticed his son was gone but decided to finish his deliveries to preserve his Uber Eats rating.
Police said the boy’s mother, who was in the passenger seat, told officers she had fallen asleep while Rouse was driving.
She reportedly woke up to an eerie silence before turning around and discovering her child was gone.
Witnesses said the boy was running toward traffic before two bystanders intervened.
“I was running pretty fast. Anything could’ve happened in a matter of seconds because cars were zooming by,” said rescuer Jamie Cabell.
Another bystander, Alexandre Thomas-Brown, recalled the tense moment, saying, “It was like we were running a quarter-mile run, and I had to catch this kid. I’m not going to let him go out into traffic. I have to save him.”
Authorities said Rouse refused to return to the scene out of fear he would be arrested.
The child’s mother eventually arrived and took the boy back to her car, police said.
As Rouse awaits his court hearing, another father hundreds of miles away admitted to an even more chilling crime in Arizona.
Christopher Scholtes, 38, pleaded guilty in Pima County court to second-degree murder for the death of his 2-year-old daughter, Parker, who died inside a hot car last summer.
Prosecutors said Scholtes left the toddler in his 2023 Acura with the engine running and air conditioning on while temperatures outside reached 90 degrees.
Instead of checking on her, he spent more than three hours drinking beer, watching pornography, and playing video games inside his home in Marana.
At some point, investigators said the vehicle automatically shut off. When emergency responders arrived, the temperature inside had risen to 108.9 degrees.
Parker was pronounced dead from heat exposure, according to the Pima County Medical Examiner.
Text messages later revealed that Scholtes had left his children unattended in the car on multiple occasions, a pattern prosecutors said showed reckless disregard for their safety.
His two older children, then ages 9 and 5, told police their father often left them inside the car while he played video games or ran errands.
According to court documents, Scholtes also spent part of that day shopping online for men’s clothing and pornography between 2:02 p.m. and 2:30 p.m., while Parker was dying in the heat.
Before returning home, he allegedly stopped at a gas station and supermarket, where surveillance video showed him stealing beer from both locations.
Investigators said he consumed some of the alcohol while his daughter remained trapped inside the car.
Security footage confirmed Scholtes returned home at 12:53 p.m., just as his older daughters came back from a trampoline park he had allowed them to attend unsupervised.
He initially told detectives he arrived home two hours later, but police disproved that claim with the recordings.
The toddler remained in the locked car until her mother, Erika, returned home after 4 p.m.
Prosecutors said she asked where Parker was, prompting both parents to rush outside.
Emergency personnel arrived shortly after but were unable to revive the child. She was pronounced dead at a hospital about an hour later.
Court records show Scholtes previously rejected a plea deal in March that could have limited his sentence to 10 years.
Under his new agreement, he faces 20 to 30 years in prison without the possibility of parole. His sentencing is scheduled for November 21.
