Baby sitter pleads to locking kids in car

A Carson City baby sitter pleaded guilty Tuesday to leaving her two young charges in a hot car while she gambled.

Ernestina Leon-Decastro, 44, entered the guilty pleas before District Judge Bill Maddox to two counts of gross misdemeanor child endangerment and neglect. In exchange for the plea, two counts of misdemeanor leaving a child unattended in a vehicle were dismissed.

According to court records, Leon was baby-sitting a 5-year-old girl and a 1-year-old boy when she left them locked inside her GMC Jimmy outside the Silver Dollar Casino in east Carson City.

Two delivery truck drivers heard the children crying. When they looked in the truck's tinted windows, they saw both children covered in sweat and one of them suffering from a nose bleed.

Both men tried to open the doors. When that failed, one ran into the casino and asked employees to call 911.

Within moments of the 1 p.m. call, Leon-Decastro emerged from the casino and unlocked the vehicle.

The men kept her there until police arrived.

Investigators said that when they tested the temperature in the interior of the vehicle, it registered a reading of 133 degrees. The casino's electronic marquee displayed an outside temperature of 73 degrees at 1:19 p.m., about 20 minutes after the children were discovered.

According to the Office of Traffic Safety, when the temperature outside is 73 degrees, an SUV can heat up to 100 degrees in 10 minutes and up to 120 degrees in just 30 minutes.

Heat exhaustion can occur at temperatures above 90 degrees, and heat stroke can occur when temperatures rise above 105 degrees. Heat exhaustion can lead to heat stroke, or hyperthermia, and can be fatal.

Nationwide in 2005, 424 incidences were reported and 149 children were killed from being left unsupervised in a vehicle, according to Kids In Cars, a national organization that maintains a database of instances.

The children, who are not related, were treated and released to their mothers.

When she is sentenced Sept. 19, she faces up to two years in jail and a fine of up $4,000.

- Contact reporter F.T. Norton at ftnorton@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1213.