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A California woman is in custody and facing charges after authorities say she left her four-year-old daughter to die while trapped in a submerged car after a DUI crash.
Juliette Marie Acosta, 26, is facing several felonies, including murder, felony drunk driving and resisting arrest, Stanislaus County District Attorney’s office said Friday.
Acosta was driving her Subaru SUV with her daughter, Reagan Herrin, when she crashed it into a canal near Hickman, California, on March 8, according to the district attorney’s office. Her blood alcohol level was allegedly “nearly three times” the .08 legal driving limit.
Herrin’s uncle, who lived nearby, rushed to the scene and helped rescue Acosta from the car, local authorities told The Sacramento Bee. Once police responded, he also helped a deputy rescue Herrin from the car.
The deputy, alongside the uncle, “heroically, and without hesitation, entered the frigid water and rescued” the four-year-old, California Highway Patrol spokesperson Tom Olsen told The Sacramento Bee.
Emergency responders initially wanted to take Herrin to the hospital via helicopter, but “it was determined that the patient was not stable enough to be flown,” so they took her by ambulance, according to the Modesto Fire Department.
Acosta wasn’t injured in the crash, The Sacramento Bee reports. Prosecutors say Acosta left the scene and took a bath while her daughter “remained in peril at the crash scene,” alleging her inaction caused the four-year-old’s death.
Acosta’s attorney Gil Somera disputes his client was taking a bath and accused prosecutors of trying to “inflame the public’s anger.”
“Timeline-wise, it's almost impossible to have done both of those,” he told The Independent. “Time-wise, you can't go take a bath while your daughter's drowning if it's in her canal, not next to a home...logically, it just doesn't make sense.”
Acosta was initially arrested on the scene in March but was charged with only a DUI. She was later released on bail.
Police then went to arrest Acosta early Friday morning after prosecutors added more charges, including murder. Police say they apprehended her at a San Francisco hotel after she tried to run. Her father Clifford Acosta Jr., has also been detained after police said he tried to help her escape, The Sacramento Bee reports.
Somera says he had arranged with police for his client to surrender at 8 a.m. Friday at the Modesto office of the California Highway Patrol.
“Any suggestion that my client was attempting to flee is completely false,” he said. “Such an accusation is not only unfounded, but appears intended to inflame public opinion and provoke scorn.”
Somera said Acosta’s father wasn’t helping aid her escape, but rather keeping her close to him while she was “emotionally and psychologically devastated.”
“Anybody who knows her father knows that he has a substantial amount of construction business in San Francisco, and he kept his daughter with her,” he added. “She was also part of his business.”
She’s now being held without bail, the district attorney’s office said.
She could be facing life in prison if convicted.
“It’s about whether it's a manslaughter versus a murder,” Somera told The Independent. “And so I think the public always looks at this and says, ‘Well, you did or you didn't do it.’ Guilt is guilt, but it's the degree of guilt, it's the circumstances that center around with punishment is necessary, and right now everyone wants to circle around life in prison to a mother.”
A GoFundMe for Herrin’s father, Gage Herrin, was launched last month to raise money for the “unexpected expenses” that came with his daughter’s death. The GoFundMe has raised more than $22,000 as of Saturday morning, surpassing the initial goal of $14,000.
“Any remaining money that has been donated after expenses will be donated back to the community on Reagan's behalf in hopes to prevent incidents like this from happening in the future,” the GoFundMe reads.
“Thank you again for all your continued support and we pray that justice is served for Reagan.”
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