A Midland father faces a capital murder charge after his 2-year-old daughter was found unresponsive in a locked, non-running car on Sunday and later died at a hospital, police said in an account reported by Fox.
Midland Police Department officers responded at 7:56 p.m. to the 100 block of East Pecan Avenue. They encountered Lorenzo Elias Rodriguez, 25, and members of his family.
Family members force entry
Rodriguez’s brother and sister-in-law told officers they went to the home to check on Rodriguez and his daughter after learning he had consumed alcoholic beverages the previous night. When no one answered repeated knocks, they removed a window air-conditioning unit and entered the home.
They found Rodriguez asleep and woke him at about 8 p.m. Police said he had been asleep since approximately 11 a.m.
The relatives could not find the girl inside the home. They ran outside to a black Kia passenger car, found her inside and broke a window to remove her, police said. The child was taken to Midland Memorial Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Police arrested Rodriguez based on evidence collected during the death investigation. The department did not disclose what that evidence was or identify an official cause of death in its public account.
Capital charge carries highest penalty
The capital charge requires more than proof of negligence. Texas law defines capital murder to include the murder of a child younger than 15 and allows prosecutors to pursue the charge under several murder theories. Authorities have not disclosed which theory or evidence supports the charge against Rodriguez.
Because Rodriguez is older than 18, a capital murder conviction carries life in prison without parole or death under the Texas Penal Code. Prosecutors have not announced whether they will seek the death penalty. The charge remains an allegation, and Rodriguez is presumed innocent unless convicted.
The National Weather Service recorded a high of 100 degrees at Midland International Airport on Sunday, four degrees above normal. NHTSA warns that a vehicle’s interior can heat up by 20 degrees in as little as 10 minutes and that a child’s body warms three to five times faster than an adult’s.
Texas recorded 155 pediatric vehicular heatstroke deaths from 1998 through 2025, the highest total of any state and an average of roughly five to six per year, according to NoHeatStroke.org. Eight occurred in Texas last year. The organization lists Sunday’s Midland death as the state’s first case of 2026.
In a separate North Texas case, a Collin County jury convicted Vanessa Esquivel of first-degree murder in June and sentenced her to 25 years for the 2025 hot-car death of her 15-month-old son, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
