Edinburg man confesses to abandoning Salvadoran children

EDINBURG — Sheriff’s deputies arrested a man who confessed to abandoning two Salvadoran children in a field Saturday morning.

Deputies said Adan Hernandez, 26, led authorities on a high-speed chase Tuesday that ended with his vehicle rolling over several times in Willacy County, said Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño.

Hernandez was treated at an area hospital and then arrested. He told deputies the children’s mother paid him $700 to transport her 1-year-old boy and his 3-year-old sister to a relative’s house in Houston after they met at the Y Drive Inn in east Edinburg.

A passerby found the children alone about 10:30 a.m. Saturday as they cried in a field near the intersection of Cesar Chavez and Monte Cristo roads.

Deputies said Hernandez called 9-1-1 that morning, saying he had been hired to smuggle the children north and was driving a Chevrolet Trailblazer owned by a couple who was operating a stash house near Donna. He apparently then realized what he had just told law enforcement and hung up the phone, deputies said.

Surveillance video shows the children’s mother turning them over to Hernandez after they met earlier that morning at the Y Drive Inn, 6258 E. Highway 107, Edinburg, court documents in the case state.

However, Hernandez backed out of the deal.

“He just got cold feet,” Treviño said.

Doctors at Edinburg Children’s Hospital treated minor injuries the boy and girl suffered when they were abandoned.

Investigators with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement are looking into the operators of the suspected stash house, Treviño said. They could face federal charges. Prosecutors told sheriff’s investigators not enough evidence exists to charge the children’s mother or the stash house owners with child endangerment.

“The mother and the couple gave the kids to a complete stranger,” Treviño said. “But we cannot show — and we don’t think there’s any evidence to indicate — that there was any intention to abandon them.”

The Salvadoran mother and her children will likely be deported after the case against Hernandez wraps up in state District Court in Hidalgo County, the sheriff said.

Hernandez was arraigned Wednesday afternoon at the Hidalgo County Jail on two counts of abandoning or endangering a child. Hidalgo County Justice of the Peace Charlie Espinoza set his total bond at $150,000 for the two counts, each of which is a third-degree felony and carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000 upon conviction.

La Frontera staff writer Martha Leticia Hernández contributed to this report.