A 13-year-old accused of stealing a car with a baby inside faced a judge Monday to learn his official charges. The alleged carjacker made a brief appearance in court, but his attorney waived his appearance. Instead, his mother heard the proceedings through a Creole interpreter. The boy's sister was also in court.
"He is on home detention and he will continue on home detention. Home detention means that the only place he can be 24-hours a day is inside the house except to go to school," said Judge Maria de Jesus Santovenia in Miami-Dade Children's Court.
The court appointed the suspected carjacker a public defender as his attorney. Prosecutors say, the 13-year-old stole a woman's SUV with her 6-month old child in the back seat.
"And I ran after it trying to explain to the person that my baby is in the car," the mother, who did not want to be identified, said on Friday.
It happened as the mother was dropping off her two other children with their grandmother on Northeast Miami Court. She stepped out with the car running never thinking her worst nightmare would happen.
"I left him in while the car was running and the air was on so he wouldn't have to be out here in the heat," she said.
Police pulled over the Jeep only a few blocks away from the alleged carjacking location and charged the teen with one count of grand theft auto and took him into custody. The baby was asleep the whole time and was not hurt.
