Inset: Lorenzo E. Rodriguez (Midland County Sheriff's Office). Background: The area in Texas where Rodriguez allegedly left his 2-year-old daughter to die in a hot car (Google Maps).
A 25-year-old father in Texas is accused of killing his 2-year-old daughter, allegedly leaving the toddler trapped inside a locked vehicle for roughly nine hours while he slept off a night of drinking and temperatures outside hit nearly 100 degrees.
Lorenzo Elias Rodriguez was taken into custody over the weekend and charged with one count of capital murder of a person under 10 years old, court records show. According to a news release from the Midland Police Department, the investigation into Rodriguez began when officers were dispatched at about 7:56 p.m. Sunday to a residence in the 100 block of East Pecan Avenue on a report of an unresponsive child locked inside a vehicle.
According to investigators, Rodriguez's family said he had consumed alcohol Saturday evening, and when they were unable to get in touch with him on Sunday, they went to his home to check on him and his daughter. After repeatedly knocking on the front door and getting no response, relatives removed a window air-conditioning unit and climbed inside the residence to check on both of them, police said.
Family members found Rodriguez asleep and woke him at about 8 p.m. Police said he had been asleep since approximately 11 a.m.
"The brother and sister-in-law were unable to locate the child inside the residence," the release states. "They then ran outside to a black Kia passenger car, where they found the child inside the vehicle. The vehicle was not running, according to police. The family members broke a window to gain access to the vehicle and removed the 2-year-old child."
The family rushed the toddler to Midland Memorial Hospital for treatment, but she was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at the facility.
Following a preliminary investigation, authorities said they had developed probable cause to charge Rodriguez with capital murder.
Court documents obtained by Midland CBS affiliate KOSA and Odessa-based NBC affiliate KWES reportedly mirror the sequence of events described by police, including that Rodriguez's relatives entered the home after removing the window air-conditioning unit, found him asleep, searched unsuccessfully for the child inside, and ultimately located her in the locked vehicle outside.
The arrest comes as temperatures in Midland reached 99 degrees on Sunday, according to a report from Midland Fox affiliate KDFW, which cited National Weather Service data showing that temperatures inside a parked vehicle can climb well above 130 degrees in less than an hour under such conditions.
Jail records show he is being held in the Midland County Jail without bond. It was not immediately clear when he was scheduled to appear in court.
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