Two jailed in child's death

PORTALES — The operator of a Portales daycare who forgot two children in a hot vehicle discovered them when she went to retrieve paperwork, court records show.

Maliyah Jones, 22 months, was pronounced dead on arrival at Roosevelt General Hospital on Tuesday afternoon.

The second child, Aubrianna Loya, under age 3, was transported to a Lubbock hospital for further treatment based on "a loss of body function, high body temperature and inability to breathe on her own," court records show.

Loya family members said Aubrianna was breathing on her own late Wednesday morning, but remained unresponsive and in critical condition.

Portales police arrested two daycare operators in connection with the incident.

Sandi Taylor, 31, and her mother Mary E. Taylor, 62, are charged with child abuse resulting in great bodily harm and child abuse resulting in death.

Both are being held at the Roosevelt County Detention Center awaiting a bond hearing scheduled for 1:30 p.m. today.

An affidavit for arrest warrant shows the Taylors, who operate Taylor Tots daycare at 1408 S. Ave. C in Portales, took 12 children to a park for lunch on Tuesday. They returned to the daycare about 1:30 p.m. in their GMC Acadia.

The report shows the Taylors took children back inside the daycare but "forgot" two children who required assistance to be allowed out of their car seats.

About 3 p.m. on Tuesday, the report shows Sandi Taylor received a call from the Child, Youth and Families Department, which requested paperwork related to the daycare facility.

When Sandi Taylor went to the vehicle to retrieve that paperwork, she found Aubrianna "slumped over toward the door," the report shows.

Sandi Taylor "began screaming for help as she grabbed the child safety seat and the children before taking them inside."

Once inside, the report shows, both Taylors attempted CPR on the children and Sandi Taylor called 911.

Portales' temperatures were in the mid-90s on Tuesday, the National Weather Service reported.

Jan Null, a research meteorologist with San Jose State University, maintains a website: noheatstroke.org

Null said the Portales death was the 26th in the United States this year due to heatstroke in a vehicle.

Maliyah was the first child in New Mexico to die this year in a hot car, he said. Null said Maliyah's death was the 10th in New Mexico since 1997. Hers was the first hot-car death in New Mexico since 2012.

The last time a similar incident happened in eastern New Mexico was in 1999, when Daniel Ellison, 7 1/2 months, died after being left outside for eight hours on a 95-degree day.

Null said his research suggests the temperature inside the vehicle in Portales on Tuesday was about 135 degrees one hour after the children were shut in.

He said clinical heat stroke occurs when the body temperature is 104 and death occurs soon after the body temperature reaches 107.

He also said a child's body temperature rises three to five times faster than an adult's.

— Staff writer Stephanie Losoya contributed to this report.