Brandon Padilla-Aguilera, Barstow, California dad who drove through flooded street charged in drowning death of 2 year old autistic son as some wonder if San Bernardino County went overboard to charge the dad one month after ongoing investigations.
Have prosecutors gone overboard….? A California father has been charged with vehicular manslaughter in the drowning death of his autistic 2-year-old son after driving the family car directly into flood waters during a storm while making their way home last month.
Brandon Padilla-Aguilera, 26, of Barstow was driving the family white sedan home from his grandmother’s funeral with the nonverbal boy on Sept. 18 when the father allegedly made the fatal decision to attempt to plow across a flooded street leading to Xavier’s drowning after the vehicle becoming water bogged.
Barstow, California dad arrested and charged with toddler’s drowning following collected evidence
As the dad scrambled out of the flooded car, with Xavier in tow, the boy was lost when the 2 year old was suddenly torn from the dad by rushing waters.
The dad was able to make it to a patch of ground and was soon rescued, while the missing 2-year old’s body was found the next day in a flood control channel, ABC News reported.
Last week, a month after the tragedy, Padilla-Aguilera was taken into custody, and on Tuesday, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department booked him on one count of suspicion of murder, according to release from the Barstow Police Department.
‘Over the course of the month-long investigation, detectives spoke with witnesses and gathered evidence,’ cops said in a statement. ‘Based on evidence obtained, detectives secured an arrest warrant for him,’ officials said in the release without elaborating what evidence had been gathered.
Did California prosecutors go too far in deciding to charge Barstow dad with 2 year old’s drowning death?
The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office ultimately decided to charge the dad with vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and one count of child abuse under circumstances of condition likely to cause great bodily injury or death.
Padilla-Aguilera’s defense attorney denied guilt at his first court appearance on Tuesday, according to KABC. The dad who remains held on $200K bond is set to return to court next week.
While commentators on social media agreed the dad was likely careless and had made a critical misjudgement in believing he could cross the waters, many wondered if prosecutors had over reached by electing to charge the parent with vehicular manslaughter.
Reflected one commentator: ‘What he did was extremely foolish and he will live with that tragic mistake the rest of his life……but to arrest this man is beyond insanity.’
Responded another, ‘Unless the dad was drunk or high, he shouldn’t be charged for anything.’
Wrote another, ‘I don’t see the point in criminalizing being simple minded. It’s not like he abandoned the kid.’
Stated another, ‘Stupidity is not a crime.’
