MIAMI – Karen Julissa Aviles, 41, was facing up to 30 years in prison, but took a plea deal on Tuesday.
She was sentenced to four months in Miami-Dade County followed by 10 years of probation.
The former daycare owner was taken into custody Tuesday morning to begin serving her sentence for the death of 2-year-old Angel Matute Chavez in 2016.
“My opinion is that she is legally innocent of these charges. However, I can understand how a jury can have a different opinion and a jury could find her guilty, and if a jury did find her guilty she’d be looking at a minimum of 13 years on the guidelines up to 30,” defense attorney Simon Steckel had said.
It was September of 2016 when Chavez was left in a hot van to die.
Aviles was driving the van, and police say Aviles picked up a group of kids and took them to the daycare.
When she arrived, she told police she gave the responsibility of unloading the children from the van to another employee. Six hours later, paramedics found the boy bleeding from his ears and nose in the van.
Doctors determined he died of a heatstroke. His official cause of death was “hyperthermia due to extreme environmental temperature.”
Aviles cried as the prosecutor and a translator read a letter from the mother of the boy addressed to the court.
“All through these years the emptiness that Angelito left is impossible to fulfill,” the mother said.
After the hearing, Aviles’s mother said that her daughter is innocent and someone else was to blame for this tragedy.
“If you look and analyze the facts of this case, I believe there’s someone else out there, who will remain nameless, who is factually and legally responsible for his death, who is not prosecuted,” Steckel said.
Aviles will be on probation for 10 years where she can’t work with children during the daytime.
She also has to pay a $100 donation every year to the victim’s compensation fund.