Inset: Ascencio Largo (Phoenix Police Department). Background: The adult store where Largo visited while his children were left in a hot car in Phoenix, Ariz. (Google Maps).
An Arizona man has learned his fate after leaving his four children in an exceedingly hot car while he visited an adult store.
Ascencio Largo, 38, was sentenced this week to four months in jail and 10 years of probation – after previously facing substantial time behind bars for the ill-fated mid-summer excursion.
In July, Largo was arrested on eight felony counts after his children were found in a car that became as hot as 124 degrees.
“Where”s mom or dad?” an officer asks while rescuing the quartet, according to body-worn camera footage released by the Phoenix Police Department when announcing the charges. Later, another officer can be heard asking: “Do you know where your guys’ family is?”
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As it turned out, their nearest family member was in The Adult Shoppe on South 24th Street in the Crestwood neighborhood of Phoenix.
On the day in question, a 911 caller reported the incident.
“The car was turned off and the windows were rolled up,” police wrote in a press release. “Officers recognized the danger this posed to the children and immediately gained access to the vehicle. After getting all of the children out of the car, each was given water and put into a marked patrol Tahoe with running air conditioning to help cool down the children.”
Each of the children was said to be visibly suffering from heat-related issues; they were sweating profusely, hot to the touch, and had red skin, according to law enforcement sources cited by Phoenix-based CBS affiliate KPHO.
All of the victims were under the age of 10 at the time. They were monitored after being rescued and checked for temperatures. Their internal body heat ranged from 99.7° to 100.4°F, police said.
“The children were in imminent danger of death in this situation,” a prosecutor said during Largo’s first courtroom appearance.
The judge at that hearing also took stock of the lapse.
“You could have exited that store to a car full of your dead children which is rather shocking,” the judge told the father. “It indicates a strong level of reckless culpability.”
Beyond leaving the children inside for upward of an hour, police said Largo appeared to be drunk and had not responded to multiple announcements made by store employees about the car.
The judge continued to criticize the since-punished dad, at length:
You are presumed innocent, but what the police are alleging could have resulted in, you know, the kind of story that gets picked up on international news wires: Man goes into porno store leaving his four children to die in their car.
In the end, the children did not die from spending an hour baking while their dad went to “get some supplies,” as he told arresting officers.
Before his arrest, Largo went out the back door of the business where an officer asked if the car was his, according to court documents obtained by KPHO. The man initially responded “no.” Officers, however, thought to follow him until he walked around to find the Nissan surrounded by emergency vehicles – whereupon he said “Oh s–.”
