Left inset: Alexa Cortez Rivera (GoFundMe). Right inset: Brenda Liliana Rivera Estrada (Maricopa County Sheriff's Office). Background: The SUV that Brenda Liliana Rivera Estrada was allegedly driving recklessly when she killed her daughter, Alexa Cortez Rivera, in Phoenix, Ariz. (KPNX/YouTube).
An Arizona mom allegedly killed her 9-year-old daughter in a rollover crash after forcing her to share her seat belt with a sibling while riding with her 1-year-old sister and two brothers, ages 3 and 11. Police say the mother was driving recklessly and an odor of marijuana was detected in her car.
The state's Department of Public Safety tells Law&Crime that Brenda Liliana Rivera Estrada, 30, was arrested and charged with one count of manslaughter and four counts of child abuse in connection with the Sunday morning crash, which left her injured and hospitalized.
Estrada was booked into the Maricopa County Jail after being released from the hospital, according to DPS officials. Her slain daughter, Alexa Cortez Rivera, was identified on Facebook by loved ones and in a GoFundMe launched by the girl's grandmother.
"She was a … very loving and young baby with a full life ahead of her," the GoFundMe says. "Unfortunately her life was taken away in a car accident."
DPS officials say Estrada was driving northbound on Interstate 17 in Phoenix with Alexa and her three other children when she flipped her SUV and crashed near Peoria Avenue. The children and Estrada all suffered serious injuries, with Alexa being forced to share a seat belt with one of her siblings as her mom was driving recklessly, per officials.
"Multiple witnesses stated that she was driving above the posted speed limit, which was 65," a prosecutor told a Maricopa County judge on Monday during Estrada's first court appearance, according to local NBC affiliate KPNX.
"They said that she was passing vehicles," the prosecutor alleged. "She was driving recklessly."
Authorities who arrived at the crash scene after the SUV flipped over reported smelling marijuana in Estrada's car. "The suspect chose to get in a vehicle where she was allegedly under the influence of marijuana," the prosecutor said in court.
"I was not high," Estrada insisted while speaking to the judge overseeing her case. She allegedly told police she had smoked the morning before but not on the day of the crash.
"I think that it's just a tragedy," the judge said.
Estrada is being held on a $100,000 bond.
"Alexa, no words can describe the pain you've left us," a loved one wrote on Facebook, noting how the girl's father had died several years ago.
"I can't believe you're gone," the person said. "You'll be deeply missed and always in our hearts. Keep being the sweet, lovely and funny girl you were always. All I can think of right now is you're with your dad hugging each other in heaven."