No charges in baby's death

ELSA — More than three months after her son's death, Jennifer Montelongo's family still struggles to cope with the loss.

Her 7-month-old boy, Samuel James Hernandez, died from heat exposure Oct. 10, 2008, after his father, Jaime Hernandez, left the infant in his car seat.

Hernandez had gone to work for the day at Edcouch-Elsa High School, where he was a special education teacher's assistant.

"My husband is a good man," Montelongo said as tears streamed down her face during an interview Thursday. "Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong that day."

Hernandez faced a charge of criminally negligent homicide - a state jail felony - for his role in his son's death and could have faced a jail term of up to two years and a fine of up $10,000 if convicted.

Weeks after Samuel's death, Elsa police investigators turned their case over to a grand jury to decide whether Hernandez should be handed criminal charges.

Hernandez and a relative testified before the grand jurors in November, telling them Samuel's death truly was an accident.

The jury decided to drop the charges against the father.

Jane Alonzo, the prosecutor who presented the case to the grand jury, said the jurors likely believed that Hernandez - who had no previous criminal history - made a mistake that day.

A total of 42 children left in cars died from hyperthermia, or overheating, last year in the United States, according to data compiled by Jan Null, an adjunct professor of meteorology at San Francisco State University. Nine of those incidents occurred in Texas.

"I understand that people get upset about these cases," Alonzo said. "But the grand jury heard all the evidence and that is what they decided in this case."

Montelongo said she and her family visit little Samuel's grave every day.

And to add to what has already been a challenging year for his family, Hernandez lost his teaching aide job when the Edcouch-Elsa school district laid off more than 200 employees in December. He continues to search for work, Montelongo said.

Above all, losing Samuel has been difficult for his older brother and sister to bear - but not as hard as it has been for their father, who declined to comment for this story.

"If it is hard for me," Montelongo said, "you can imagine it is a thousand times worse for him."

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Jared Taylor covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4439.