The district attorney will not file charges against the Morgan
Hill mother who left her infant daughter unattended in a vehicle
which was stolen.
The district attorney will not file charges against the Morgan Hill mother who left her infant daughter unattended in a vehicle which was stolen.
Maribel Corona, 24, briefly left her 1-month-old child Mariana in her Infiniti sedan the afternoon of May 31. The car was stolen from the parking lot of a Morgan Hill food pantry where Corona went to retrieve groceries, and the theft sparked a statewide Amber Alert for several hours.
Although it is a crime in California to leave a child unattended in a vehicle, Corona will not face charges, according to Santa Clara County deputy district attorney Steven Dick.
“After reviewing all the police reports and considering all the facts we decided not to file charges at this time,” Dick said.
Police are investigating a “person of interest” in the theft of Corona’s car, though they declined to release any information about the person, according to Morgan Hill Police Sgt. Shane Palsgrove.
The car was recovered in a park in Salinas with the baby safely inside, still strapped into her car seat, the same afternoon it was stolen, police said.
Maribel Corona told police she went to the St. Catherine food pantry on Peak Avenue and left her daughter in the parked car “for five minutes” with the keys inside while she went inside to get groceries. When she exited the building, the car was gone and Corona reported the incident to police.
Law enforcement agencies from all over the area, including Morgan Hill, Gilroy and San Jose police, the sheriff’s office and California Highway Patrol assisted in the search for the missing infant. Helicopters circled over Morgan Hill for about three hours before the child was found by Salinas nurse Peggy Clancy, who was returning to her car from a hike in the park where the child and car were abandoned.
