Woman Charged With Leaving Toddler in Hot Car Also Facing Deportation

EAST WINDSOR, CT — A New Britain woman charged after her 16-month-old daughter was found alone in a vehicle in the East Windsor Walmart parking lot is also facing deportation proceedings, authorities confirmed Thursday.

Gloria Sanchez-Cerritos, 22, was charged on Monday with risk of injury to a child, leaving a child unsupervised in a motor vehicle and first-degree reckless endangerment, police said. On Tuesday, she was charged with being in the country with expired paperwork, said Shawn Neudauer, the public affairs officer for the Boston office of the U.S. Immigration, Customs and Enforcement division or ICE, which has jurisdiction in Connecticut.

Sanchez-Cerritos entered the country legally from Mexico in 2011, but has since "overstayed by five years," he said.

She is in custody and will be facing "removal" proceedings, Neudauer said on Thursday.

The red flag on Sanchez-Cerritos went up with ICE after the local arrest. At about 6:30 p.m. Monday, the East Windsor Police Department was called to the Route 5 Walmart for a report of a child left in a vehicle unattended with the windows up.

Police and East Windsor Ambulance personnel found the girl in the vehicle secured in a car seat, according to a report. The doors were unlocked and the child, who was distressed and sweating profusely, was removed from the vehicle, police said.

The external air temperature was about 81 degrees at the time of the incident, police said.

The child was taken to Connecticut Children’s Medical Center for evaluation, and the state Department of Children and Families sent personnel to the hospital to investigate the incident, police said.

Police were on scene for 45 minutes when two people came to the vehicle, according to a report. A woman, identified as Sanchez-Cerritos, said she was the child's mother and that she forgot the girl was in the vehicle, police said.

The other person was identified as Juan Sanchez-Cerritos, 30, brother to Gloria and uncle to the child, police said.

He was also charged by East Windsor police with risk of injury to a child, leaving a child unsupervised in a motor vehicle and first-degree reckless endangerment, a report indicates.

Photos courtesy of East Windsor Police Department