DUI lawyer charged in daughter's death after allegedly leaving her in a locked car during heatwave

An Orange County mother who campaigned for stricter drunk driving laws faces more than 10 years in prison for leaving her daughter locked in a car during a heat wave that caused “dangerous heat” in much of Southern California.

The Toddler died outside family's Anaheim apartment complex on September 6, when temperatures reached over 40 degrees.

Relatives began searching for 3-year-old Ily Ruiz and her mother, Sandra Hernandez-Cazares, 42, after staff at her 5-year-old son's school called family members to tell them no one had come to pick up the boy from daycare.

They found the unconscious couple in the family's white Ford Expedition. Some relatives smashed the vehicle's window while others called emergency services.

Family members and paramedics attempted to resuscitate the little girl, but she was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Doctors believe the three-year-old had been dead for several hours before her family members found her.

Paramedics also took Hernandez-Cazares to the hospital while officers combed the scene. They found empty alcohol bottles in the SUV. The Orange County District Attorney's Office said her blood alcohol content was 0.30, nearly four times the legal limit, after doctors treated her at the hospital.

Prosecutors charged Hernandez-Cazares with manslaughter and child abuse with serious bodily injury. If convicted, she faces up to 12 years in prison. She is being held on $150,000 bail.

The district attorney said Hernandez-Cazares' two young sons were killed by a drunk driver during a camping trip in South Dakota in 2012. Hernandez-Cazares and her husband, Juan Ruiz, have pushed for tougher penalties for driving under the influence.

“The unimaginable pain of having your 5- and 9-year-old sons killed by a drunk driver is something you can never recover from,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. “A mother who was robbed of the chance to watch two of her sons grow up because of a stranger's selfish decision must live with the fact that she will never see her little daughter grow up because of her own choices.”

Relatives will take care of Hernandez-Cazares' five-year-old son.