Mom CHARGED After Toddler Suffocates to Death

I know there's a lot going on right now. I'm going to start with the easy question. Got a crib in there, pour all the hell with the dry bottle. Apparently he was alone for like five hours. 15-month-old Isaias Pascual Hernandez should be turning two next month. But instead, police are walking through his family's apartment. EMS is working on him on the floor. And his own mom is being taken to jail. Okay, I'm going to read this to you, okay? You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say you can and will be used against you in the court of law. What police found inside that crib and what. My life is booked and busy. I don't have time to try on a million outfits that still don't feel right. That's why I get styled with Stitch Fix. My personal stylist sends outfits picked for my size, style, and budget so I can get dressed and get on with my day feeling confident. It's no risk, all style. Free shipping, free returns, no subscription required. Get started today at stitchfix.com. That's stitchfix.com. They say this mom told detectives about the last seven hours of her son's life are heartbreaking. We're on the case presented by Law & Crime. I'm Chris Stewart. Stories like this are really tough. And I'm going to show you some newly released body cam video from a very sad case out of Indiana involving a boy named Isaias Pascual Hernandez. He was 15 months old and his family called him their paint. He was the thing that brought. He was the thing that brought color to their lives. He was described as brave and outgoing, full of joy. But on a November afternoon in Evansville, Indiana, police rushed into his family's apartment to find him unresponsive on the floor. He was already gone. And when officers looked around that home and looked into the crib where this little boy had been sleeping, they found a scene they say was completely preventable. Newly released body camera footage is now pulling back the curtain on exactly what first responders walked into that day. The extreme conditions in that apartment, the way they say this toddler was left, and the evidence that led police to charge his own mom with a felony that could put her in prison for decades. So let's go back to November 14th, 2025, Evansville, Indiana. When officers arrive at the apartment on Cass Court, it's chaos. First responders are rushing in. And the first thing they do is separate the parents. An officer brings the mom downstairs. Her name is Amira Moody. She is 25 years old. And then he starts asking questions. I'm going to start with easy questions. What's your first name? Can you spell that for me? Yep. Last name? Spell that for me. Your last name for me? Do you live here with him? Are you mom? Is he dad? Biologically? Okay. According to the probable cause affidavit, what she tells detectives later is what changes everything. She said that her son's father left for work around 6 o'clock in the morning. Shortly after that, she wakes up and she told detectives she took a THC gummy, claiming that she was stressed about finances. That's the morning. Now, here's what the affidavit says. Moody told detectives that she put Isaias down for a nap around 9, which is earlier than usual, she said, because he seemed tired. Then she went to her own room and laid down. Around 2 in the afternoon, Isaias was still asleep. That is 5 hours. Now, by 3 or 4 in the afternoon, Isaias had been in that room for roughly 7 hours with no food, no diaper change. And that is when police say Moody finally went to go check on her son, and she eventually called for help. Now, back on the body cam footage, officers, put her in handcuffs. Put your hands on your back. Pull up. Bring your box. Put it over here so I can get it. You got it? Anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. If you decide to answer any questions now without an attorney present, you still have the right to stop answering at any time. Do you understand what I'm saying? Okay. Okay. We'll get through all this in a minute. We're going to grab a match. We're going to get through this in a minute. Do you have anything on you? No. Do you want to take a seat right here for me? I can help you sit down. Do you have any other children? No. Okay. Okay. Here, stand up for me. Let's go over here. We're going to just take a seat in this car over here. Then somebody's going to come talk to you eventually. Okay. It's this one right here. We're going to go around to the tester side. Do you use drugs or anything? Is weed the only kind of drug you use? Same with him? Yeah, but it's like not all. Okay. All right, she's going to search you again. Is there anything on you that's going to come up with it? Thank you, members. You don't think so? Or there isn't anything? This shouldn't be anything. All right. We're just worried about how this is going to be. Do you not have a brawl on? Not at all. All right. Can you widen your stance for me? I know you've got four. All right. All right. All right. okay and then just lean back for him and get that okay just hang out okay and the drug test that night according to the affidavit came back positive the lab result confirmed the presence of thc and the detective wrote that she quote stated that she was under the influence after amira is arrested and placed into the patrol car officers are also talking to the baby's dad come here man come on go i'm gonna get some information from you guys okay i know this is not an ideal time but i'll get him we go let's go this way oh i'll double lock these so they don't tighten up turn off tell me to read him are you going away just going to get some more updated information i'm just have chill for a second okay just uh you can sit down yeah thank you when an intruder approaches a home they expect a camera what they don't expect stop this is simply safe police are on the way using smart ai cameras live us-based agents help deter intruders in under 30 seconds don't just record a break-in stop it from ever happening plans starting around a dollar a day right now get 70 off your new system with professional monitoring at simplysafe.com spotify 30 seconds response time requires monitoring plan with outdoor protection starting at 49.99 a month visit simplysafe.com licenses for alarm license information shag here what's What's it like to buy a car from Carvana 100% online and get it delivered to your door? 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Hey, make sure you got nothing on here. how do you position this um just push your butt up all the way meanwhile inside the apartment ems is still working on the boy and an officer is walking through the home and this is where you start to see what the affidavit describes as clutter garbage and the apartment in just utter disarray check connector and electrodes all cpr check connector and electrodes thank you appreciate you stand clear analyzing now stand clear motion detected stop motion analyzing now stand clear no shock advised start cpr that's helpful just like another lane face down like on the side of the sheet with the wedding uh we check the crib and see if they're still on the crib it's got a crib in there poor all the hell with the dry bottle it's hard to tell how he was laying with the weight scored up the board girl i don't know i wouldn't i wouldn't do it i don't want to see how wet it is We're up here. So when we were in route, we had an AMR in route, and as we got closer to the on scene, I don't know. Double check. Check this top arm. We didn't want to not do something. It looks like we're putting on some of the ways that I'm fresh on stage. Don't check. Of course, I'm not one of the guys, of course, together. What do you do? Yeah. The affidavit describes the conditions inside the apartment in further detail and what police say was inside of the crib is frankly sickening. According to police quote, food scattered on the floor, a kitchen chair turned over in the living room, empty boxes, trash scattered throughout the living area, along with clothing and cat feces. A pack and play was located in the center of the room with an oversized mattress placed inside. The mattress went from one end of the pack and play stretching across to the other end. The excess was folded and wedged against the side of the pack and play, making an L shape. An oversized waterproof sheet was located inside the pack and play and collected. The sheet was lined in an impermeable rubber type backing. The sheet was unsafe and created a suffocation hazard. The pack and play smelled of soured milk and her formula and an empty bottle was found inside the pack and play. A second baby bottle with dried formula was found on the floor next to the closet. Amira is taken to the station and officers bring her inside. We're going to bring her in first. You want to step out for me? Okay. You just hang out right there. All right, let's go inside. This way. Okay. This way. This way. This way. All right. All right. Do you have anything else? I know you got searched like three times, but nothing on you that they might have missed. Can you go up here for me? Just hang it right here. Stop right there. I'm going to search you again, okay? You're not wearing a bra or anything, are you? Okay, I'm just going to patch down the back of my hand real quick. Okay. Let's have a seat in here. Well, don't sit down yet. Just walk in here. All right. I'll take you out of these handcuffs, and you're just going to have a seat, okay? Just have a seat right here. We'll come check on you eventually. If you need to use a restroom or anything, just knock on this door, and we'll come get you, okay? Do you want, like, water or anything? No? Okay. And then, while they wait for detectives, officers check on them. Okay. Just got to check on you once in a while, man. Observe. The North American Dad. Fifties. Great polo collection. He enters his vehicle information on Carvana. An offer appears in minutes. Remarkable. He squints, reads it again, smiles, and says, Dang, that's a good offer. The highest form of approval. No haggling. No hassle. No one called him boss. 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whatnot i honestly don't know i wish i had an answer for you but uh shouldn't be too much longer hopefully and what else amira moody told detectives in that interview room fills in everything we didn't see according to her statement to police after several hours had gone by when she was to check on her son this is what she found her account a sheet was wrapped around his head two or three times and she told detectives she struggled to unwrap it he had marks on his neck his lips were even blue she took him to her bedroom yelling for her son's father they tried cpr in the living room before calling police three days later an autopsy was performed and the medical examiner determined the cause of death to be asphyxia due to suffocation by bedding unsafe sleep with possible contribution by ligature strangulation join us now to talk more about this case is criminal defense trial attorney andrew baldwin great to have you as always here on law and crime um so you know this mom amira moody she is facing a charge of neglect of a dependent resulting in death what will prosecutors have to prove to get a conviction i think that the most difficult thing in a case like this is the knowing element uh they have to prove that well i mean i've got the charging information here uh she knowingly placed the dependent the child in this case and she's not going to be able to prove that she's not going to the situation that endangered the dependent's life or health and which resulted in the death of the victim so that's and and the problem is going to be for prosecution if there is one i mean the facts are bad here but it's the knowing did the mother know that that ultimately what was going to happen was the child dying one because i think like parenting is not easy parenting a child who's 15 months old um is not easy uh and there's a lot of things you just kind of learn on the fly uh and you know and in a case like this how do you determine whether she should have known that this pack and play that she put her baby in and then clearly i mean we have you know i have young kids we have pack and plays like it comes with like this kind of mattress thing apparently what she was using was not the right fit for for how a pack and play you know the type of mattress that should be there um how do you prove that she knew that this was a dangerous situation beyond the fact that maybe it was just kind of inserting a mattress that didn't fit but maybe she thought it was going to be okay the definition of knowing in indiana is that you in this case it would be that you did that uh with a knowing that there's a high probability of an outcome uh that that the child would die here so the knowing element in indiana is actually going to help the defendant here how do you prove it um you know in this case i think a strong piece of evidence for this prosecution is she tested positive for thc and it was a high level of thc in her system and the child had been according to her own words had not been awakened for several hours even though i think it was in the middle of the day so those are the types of facts that are bad now in terms of the pack and play i gotta tell you i'm a dad i'm a dad my kids are in their 20s now but i wasn't real good just like you said chris i mean parents especially that's her only child from what i understand that's their that's her first child and she's her first kind of attempt at at the parenthood thing and and it's easy for people out there watching to think oh you just don't do that you should be able to anticipate that the child is going to get wrapped up in this uh this the the bedding there and that's pretty much what the the autopsy showed and what uh she even admitted to and whether they can you know part of this is very upset then that's one thing but you watch that body cam footage chris and that's that's going to be a problem as well for the defense i think because she doesn't look at all upset about what's going on at that time as a defense attorney how do you counter that because i'm sure you know she's slated to go to trial in february and a prosecutor will press press play on that and make that exact same argument like what's the counter for the defense yeah you can try to counter it by saying this actually is proof that she didn't realize you know how serious this was it that you know she's trying to cooperate with the police uh she doesn't know at that time i don't think that the child is dead she's presuming up that upstairs the child is going to be um brought back to life if she even thought that the child was dead to begin with so that would be an approach is that she didn't know the child was in as much distress as he actually was like with the thc part of it um you know and and And I think today compared to like 20 years ago, it's far more common that people, you know, jurors are more aware, probably a THC gummies and they're around. I know Indiana's laws. I don't believe it's legal right in Indiana, like a recreational marijuana is still illegal. Like, how does that because I think about the set, I mean, seven hours in the middle of the day for a child to be sleeping or to not check on your child for seven hours, you know, when they're 15 months old. Like if I was a juror, that is something that would that would certainly stick out to me. And then it's not just taking all she said she was stressed about finances. So she takes a THC gummy. I mean, this was a pretty heavy and I don't know what her tolerance is and what her what her experience is with THC gummies. But like, it seems like she took a pretty heavy THC gummy and then she passes out for a long period of time. Like, how does that, you know, I think from the defense's point of view, like, how can you push back on, you know, that's a pretty damning piece of information for the one thing. One thing. Chris, about that THC level is it really is an odd number because she claims that she had taken it earlier in the day. And I'll tell you, in DUI cases, what's the relevance here? Well, in DUI cases, a lot of times people will say, gosh, I had my they think it's helpful to them that they had their last drink, you know, four hours before when actually that hurts in a DUI case. You'd rather have it sooner rather than later for reasons I won't get into. And I think that mentality could have happened here where she said. Gosh, I had that gummy a long time ago, so it shouldn't have any impact on me here now. But if you look at that THC level, it really it'd be hard to believe that she hadn't had that fairly recently. And maybe it's a weird way to defend somebody. But sometimes you have to say, gosh, I didn't tell the truth. I did not have that gummy five hours earlier. I actually had it when I started panicking and calling the police. That's when I had the gummy because that's what that level of THC is. And I think that's what she was more consistent with is a more recent usage. If she had used it five hours earlier, you would never expect that level that we saw in the probable cause affidavit. And looking just kind of going back to this neglect of dependent resulting in death charge, and I'm not a lawyer and I don't live in Indiana, but like it also like the idea of like taking a gummy and then like passing out and putting your child in this pack and play that was kind of, you know, just seems like rigged, you know, with just inserts that weren't supposed to go there and all of this. Like, it kind of feels like there could have been like a manslaughter. Argument right that she's like being reckless, you know, in that in that is that something that could have like prosecutors could they have gone in that direction as opposed to going with the charge? Yeah, there's a number of lesser included offenses that are inherently lesser included neglect of a dependent causing death, neglect of a dependent causing serious bodily injury, neglect of a dependent causing I believe it's moderate bodily injury. Those are all lesser included offenses. But when you're a prosecutor, what you want to do is file the the biggest charge. At least that's what many of them want to do. And that way you have some negotiation position over the course of the case as you get closer to trial and the defense lawyer, you know, that the defense lawyer at trial is going to be asking for lesser included as well. Shipping, billing, admin, payroll, marketing. You're managing all the things. So why waste time sending important documents the old fashioned way? Mail and ship when you want, how you want with stamps dot com. Print postage on demand. 24/7 and schedule pickups from your office or home save up to 90% with automated rate shopping. That's why over 1 million small businesses trust stamps dot com. Go to stamps dot com and use code podcast to try stamps. risk-free for 60 days. But the tough thing is death is the biggest, you know, the child did die. And, you know, if you're going to be arguing that as a defense lawyer, I mean, normally it would be, yeah, is this really moderate bodily injury or is this serious bodily injury? And you can get into those weeds, but we have a dead body here. And because of that, the lesser included offenses are going to be hard. You're almost going to have to have, a jury nullification type of argument that, yes, I understand the child has died, but with everything going on, and I know that the jury wants to have somebody pay the price for that child's death, it's just the level one felony is the most serious, 20 to 40 years, 20 years mandatory. Even if the judge feels sympathy for that, for the lady here, the judge still has to give at least 20 years in prison. So a jury doesn't know any of that in Indiana. But a defense lawyer might, you know, if they have to go to trial, if the prosecution is hell bent on going to trial and they're not coming off that F-1 down to an F-2 or an F-3 or an F-5, if the prosecutor doesn't do that, then you're going to have to kind of, you know, pretty your client up in terms of, you know, how she looked on the body cam and the fact that the house was a complete wreck and filth and trash everywhere. And that's another problem. It's going to be hard, I think. Because I was actually going to bring that up next because, you know, the pack and play is, and apparently, you know, there was old milk in the pack and play. It wasn't just about the, you know, in terms of the, you know, appearance of everything. It wasn't just the mattress and the sheet and all of that. It just seems to be like, just kind of disgusting to be honest with like the way that law enforcement explained it, you know, people parent differently, people live different lives, people in different income brackets deal with challenges. I don't know how much that you would be able to articulate. That far better than I would to, to a jury, but how hard can it be to get a jury who maybe you have someone on that jury and they're, you know, upper middle class and they're looking at this and they're saying that they just cannot relate with someone who may be struggling. And I'm not saying people who don't make a lot of money, like always have like a dirty apartment or anything, but you know, like, how can you kind of explain that away to a jury? If they're just going to see this body camera video and they kind of see the filth and they hear the description and they're just very turned off with your client. Well, you got to deal with it. First of all, during jury selection, and that's so important that you get that out there when you have bad facts as a trial lawyer, you got to get those bad facts out early. And that way, when the jury sees them, the jury's like, oh, okay, I was expecting something way worse. I mean, it is bad in there, but I think every person that's walked the planet earth, you know, at least as old as I am, has seen worse, worse houses at some point in time. It's, it's not great, but if you kind of paint it early on as what you're going to see, you're going to see some things that aren't great. And does that, how, how are you going to feel about somebody that's not, that doesn't keep their house very clean, especially with a child around and you get people talking about it and they blow it up in their mind, the jury does. And by the time they see it, it's not so bad. So that would be one way to do it. Another thing that I hadn't talked about is, is, you know, you've got a husband here. Well, I don't know if he's a husband, he's the father of the child. He's living there. He's the father, you know, we're, we're focused on the mother here. I mean, there might be a finger pointing opportunity. Here where you can point the finger at the husband and say, he's an abusive guy. He's not letting me do this and that. And you know, and you, there might be an opportunity in when I say opportunity, I mean, there might be facts that we just don't know about that could support, you know, some type of a finger pointing to the husband and saying, this guy is the one that, you know, he w he was not letting me get up and walk and look at the child. He wanted me to focus all my attentions on him. He wanted me to cook his dinner or lunch or whatever. I mean, I mean, these things do happen. And that might be another possible way to defend the case. I don't know if he's a father or not, but I think that's a good thing. The boy's father. So he apparently goes to work in the morning. He comes home, which is about five hours after Amira allegedly claims that she put her son to bed. So he comes back five hours in and then apparently he lays down with her and then they fall asleep and continue on for the next couple of hours. I still think like someone comes home and it's like, you're not asking about the baby. And then maybe the baby was in her, her care, but it's also like, you know, five hours in the middle of the day is a long time. You know, a lot of kids will sleep, I think like three hours, sometimes depending on the nap schedule, you'll be in there. But are you surprised that he didn't face charges in this considering the state of the home? And then also just the time of it where it's, you know, five to seven hours of a child sleeping in the middle of the day. And they did not appear to think that anything was wrong until unfortunately they made the discovery. Yeah, I don't, I'm not I'm not 100 percent sure that he wasn't charged with a crime. If he wasn't, I would be surprised for all those reasons you just said, Chris. I mean, first of all, we don't know what the truth is related to his work. I'm presuming that they went and looked at his work records and figured out based upon that what time he got home. But even when he did get home, I mean, you know, when when my kids were young, the first thing I would do is go and go find out where they are, give them a kiss on the head and if they were in bed or in their playpen or whatever, and then get on with whatever else was going on in the house. And this that didn't seem to happen here, nor was there any curiosity, at least it doesn't seem on the part of the father as to what might be going on with this child. So I am surprised, if it is true, that the dad wasn't charged with the crime. And again, we don't know what's going on in there. Maybe he gets home and he's telling her maybe they never fell asleep. Maybe they're smoking marijuana or they're eating edibles or something, and they don't want to reveal that to the police. Maybe they got their story straight to a degree. All these things could be happening. I would be curious as to know whether the husband and wife are still together, whether the husband, I would presume, if he blames the wife, he wouldn't be together with her. What happens if they are together? These things are all part of the story that could be told to the jury, and you pick those parts that help you as a defense lawyer sell the story that you want to sell. Knowing that this is at least slated to go to trial in February, how often do cases like this actually go to trial as opposed to being, you know, some sort of plea negotiation ahead of time? It's very, very rare that these cases go to trial. Again, I mean, in terms of negotiation, this is filed as the most serious charge in Indiana outside of murder, an F-1, 20 to 40 years, 20 years mandatory minimum up to 40. Now, she doesn't seem to have any prior criminal history, at least any that I could see from my limited availability of looking at somebody's record. And therefore, that's something that you can, as a defense lawyer, sell to the prosecutor. Look, this is terrible. This is a terrible tragedy. And she's going to have to live with this the rest of her life. You know, and why are we going to exacerbate that by putting her in prison for the rest of her life when this could have just been somebody that may be a lesser intelligence? I don't want to say that, but it might be the case. You never know. Maybe she didn't get brought up the right way and she didn't know any better. All those types of things that people out in the audience are probably thinking, screaming and saying, that's a bunch of hooey. And how dare you say that about somebody that this beautiful child is dead because of her? Yet we've never walked a mile in that woman's shoes and we never knew exactly how she was raised and what type of intelligence she has and what type of financial struggles they had. Maybe this pack and play, the best they could do was get a used pack and play on Amazon and it didn't fit and all that kind of thing. And then all of a sudden it's you might look at her differently and you might be if you can sit down with the I've known some of the prosecutors down in Evansville. The one on this case, I looked her up, has only been practicing five years. So sometimes with those prosecutors, they got something to prove. They want to go to trial. And other times they're reasonable and they might sit down with you and say, you know what, I understand where you're coming from. Let's drop this down to a level two or a level three, but get a mandatory amount of prison time in so that, you know, justice can be done for this child. And we'll see what justice looks like. This mom, Amayra. 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Thanks for doing this. Thank you, Chris. Myra Moody was charged with one count of neglect of a dependent resulting in death, which is a level one felony carrying up to 40 years in prison. She is pleaded not guilty. She is being held on a $1 million surety bond, and she's set to stand trial in February 2027. Now, as for the baby's dad, he was questioned and later released. He is not facing charges in connection to this case. That will do it for On the Case, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Chris Stewart. We'll see you next time.