UPDATE: Testimony begins for ex-Riverside teacher on trial in daughter’s death

When Wakesha Ives and her teenage stepson returned to their SUV after the school day was over, they noticed a musky scent inside the vehicle. Ives, a business teacher at the time at Riverside High School, lifted the blanket over the child safety seat and discovered the body of her 5-month-old baby.

Ives, on trial in her daughter’s death, is charged with injury to a child and criminal negligent homicide. The medical examiner testified that the child died of environmental heat exposure after being left inside a hot vehicle.

During opening statements the 384th District Court on Tuesday, the prosecution argued Ives failed to do her duty as a parent, and was guilty of failing to protect her child. But the prosecution argued evidence will show this was an involuntary act.

Defense Attorney Jim Darnell told jurors every tragedy has a beginning, including what happened in the parking lot of Riverside High School that day in May of 2013. He told the jury Ives was a “creature of habit” and would pack the baby’s diaper bag and drop off her two girls — 4-year-old Jayda at Holy Spirit Daycare and 5-month-old Janay at Miss Alicia’s Home Daycare. Ives’ teen stepson Kendal was a student at Riverside High School and would ride with her to and from school.

Darnell said Ives’ high blood-pressure medicine affected her sleep and made her groggy, confused and tired. He said Ives had been under a lot of stress due to upcoming schedule changes was not sleeping well. Darnell said even the school nurse and Ives’ husband James noticed she had health problems.

He then described what Ives said happened the day her child died. Darnell said Ives dropped off her Jayda at daycare then got breakfast at McDonald’s before heading work without dropping off Janay. When she returned to her SUV after work, Ives screamed and sobbed.

The prosecution played the 911 tape. In it you can hear a student asking for an ambulance and to hurry. Ives can be heard in the background sobbing and crying loudly and yelling, “No! No! No!”

Jurors and those in the audience grimaced and closed their eyes as Ives began crying loudly in the courtroom. Judge Patrick Garcia called for a break to let Ives compose herself as Darnell rubbed her back and neck. Friends and family wiped tears from their eyes.

Ives was escorted out of the courtroom and into the hallway where she cried while surrounded by friends and family.

The prosecution called Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Mario Rascon to the stand. Rascon told the jury that the 5-month-old baby had died of environmental heat exposure after being left inside a hot vehicle. He then explained what heat exposure was and what high temperatures can do to a person. Prosecutors asked the medical examiner what would happen to a child if it was left in a hot car for eight hours then for four hours to which he answered the child would die.

Prosecutors then called a former child protective services investigator who went to the Ives’ home a few hours after the 5-month-old was found dead. He told the courtroom he found nothing at the home that would have required further investigation, stating there were no safety concerns, no risk factors and there was a strong support network for the family. He added that the death of the child was an isolated incident by all accounts and that the mother had simply forgotten the victim was inside the vehicle.