Anastasiya Motalava, Hollywood, Florida mom who left 4 year old in hot car while going inside Walmart store to shop has felony child neglect charges dropped due to insufficient evidence of egregious level of culpable conduct.
A Florida woman who allegedly left her 4 year old daughter inside a parked car while shopping at a Hollywood, Walmart store amid searing temperatures over the weekend will not face charges according to Broward prosecutors.
Anastasiya Motalava, 34, was arrested after her child was found in her sweltering hot car in Hollywood, Florida on Sunday afternoon.
Police said a witness heard the child screaming for help from a slightly cracked window, with bodycam footage showing police freeing the infant as bystanders gathered around.
Disturbing trend
The incident is the latest in a disturbing string of children being left unattended in hot cars throughout the country, with Arizona father Christopher Scholtes, 37, now facing murder charges after his daughter died in his vehicle earlier this month.
When Motalava allegedly left her child in her hot car, Florida cops said she failed to turn the engine on to maintain the AC.
Because the mother left a window slightly cracked, rescuers were able to free the four year old without smashing the car windows.
Authorities said store surveillance cameras later found that Motalava was shopping inside a Walmart for over 30 minutes while her child was inside the car.
She was arrested and charged with one count of child neglect.
Nevertheless a memorandum from Broward Assistant State Attorney Melissa Kelly released Thursday said charges against Motalava would be dropped, NBC6 reported.
‘There is insufficient evidence to establish that the defendant’s failure to provide her child with proper supervision rises to the egregious level of culpable negligence required for felony charge of child neglect,’ Kelly wrote in the memo.
Child neglect charges dropped
According to the memo, the child wasn’t harmed and didn’t require medical treatment. Motalava also told investigators that she believed she was only in the store for 10-15 minutes.
‘While defendant’s conduct is irresponsible, it does not rise to the egregious level of conduct necessary to show culpable negligence,’ Kelly wrote in the memo. ‘This was a single isolated incident of what may be deemed poor parental judgement that resulted in defendant’s arrest on Felony Child Neglect charges.’
Kelly went on to say that Motalava will ‘receive services and proper child safety education.’
Since 1992, nearly 120 hot car deaths involving kids in Florida have been recorded by the non-profit Kids and Car Safety.
As of July, Kids and Car Safety has documented 11 hot car deaths nationwide in 2024. One of them was reported in Florida while another case is still pending an autopsy.
