John Jefferson
Background: Jessica Renteria is detained by police (WSVN). Inset: Jessica Renteria (Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation/WSVN).
A Florida woman is facing charges after allegedly leaving her 3-year-old son alone to wander an apartment complex while she had cosmetic surgery.
Jessica Renteria, 25, was arrested in June and charged with child neglect after her son was apparently found wandering an apartment complex in Doral for hours. Police body camera footage shows the moments police found the boy — safe and unharmed — and arrested his mother.
According to local Fox station WSVN, police were called to the apartment complex at around 4:15 p.m. on June 27. Renteria was apparently using a unit as a vacation rental.
A resident reportedly discovered the boy sleeping on her doorstep at around 4 p.m.
Police were called to the apartment complex at around 4:15 p.m. Surveillance footage reportedly shows the boy walking out of a third-floor apartment hours earlier, at around 1:15 p.m. Footage also apparently shows Renteria leaving the apartment complex at around 10:15 a.m. — meaning that the boy was on his own for around six hours.
Bodycam footage captured the police interaction with the boy.
“Hey, little buddy, what’s your name?” an officer is heard asking. Police also asked the boy if he knew where his parents were.
The video shows officers going through the apartment complex trying to find the boy’s caregivers, at one point asking a resident: “Hello, by any chance, are you missing a kid?”
Neighbors seen on the bodycam footage appear concerned, with one person commenting: “This is like the girl, the lady that left her daughter to go on vacation.”
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According to WSVN, police found Renteria a few miles away at a surgery center. She is seen on camera being handcuffed while inside a police car. She is wearing a robe and has bandages around her face, presumably from the cosmetic procedure.
WSVN reported that Renteria told police that she had asked a friend to watch her son — but that friend denied he was ever asked to babysit.
Renteria, who is from DeLand, Florida — some 280 mils north of Doral — was released from jail on June 28 on $1000 bond.
Online court records show that Renteria has a hearing set for Sept. 24 and a trial date of Dec. 2.
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