Middletown mother pleads guilty in hot-car death of 2-year-old daughter
Prosecutors say Zenaida Soriano-Rincon will likely receive the maximum sentence of 1 1/3 to 4 years in prison when she is sentenced in October.
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A Middletown mother has pled guilty to criminally negligent homicide in the hot-car death of her 2-year-old daughter in Wawayanda.
Prosecutors say Zenaida Soriano-Rincon will likely receive the maximum prison sentence allowed on the charge — 1 1/3 to 4 years — when she is sentenced in October.
The case stems from the September 2025 death of Soriano-Rincon’s daughter, Luna, who authorities say was left inside a vehicle for about nine hours while her mother worked at Scotty’s Country Kitchen on County Route 12 in Wawayanda.
Authorities said the vehicle’s windows were closed and the air conditioning was not running.
The outdoor temperature reached 79 degrees that day. Experts say temperatures inside an unventilated vehicle can climb to more than 100 degrees under those conditions.
Authorities said Soriano-Rincon checked on Luna toward the end of her shift and found the toddler red, sweating and in distress, but did not leave work for more than an hour.
Police said Soriano-Rincon eventually drove Luna to a doctor’s office in Middletown, where the child was found not breathing. She was later pronounced dead at Garnet Health Medical Center.
The medical examiner determined Luna died from exposure to extreme heat.
Soriano-Rincon was arrested two months later and initially charged with second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.
Soriano-Rincon is scheduled to be sentenced before Judge Craig Stephen Brown on Oct. 30 at 10 a.m.
