Left inset: Angelica Arechiga (Grand Rapids Police Department). Right inset: Julieta Magdelena (Ofield Funeral Home). Background: Angelica Arechiga in court on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, for her sentencing (WZZM/YouTube).
A mother in Michigan who caused the death of her 18-month-old daughter — leaving her unrestrained in the mom”s pickup truck to suffocate between the driver’s seat and car door — has been sentenced to 45 days in jail and probation. The woman’s three other children were in the car when her baby died.
“All I can do now, is make sure that the rest of them are okay, that they’re being taken care of,” Angelica Arechiga, 27, of Grand Rapids, told the court on Wednesday, according to local ABC affiliate WZZM. “Hopefully I can be there for them, but if not, I will have to face whatever consequences for being irresponsible,” she said.
Arechiga reportedly pleaded no contest in August to a charge of “child abuse: leaving a child in a vehicle resulting in death” for the October 2024 incident. It appeared to be the first time that the charge was ever handed down to anyone in Kent County, according to local NBC affiliate WOOD.
Arechiga’s judge said Wednesday that sentencing decisions in cases like hers are some of the hardest he has to make, but they help send a message to others. Arechiga was given two years of probation, in addition to her jail sentence.
“Even if you’re not intentionally going to harm your children, you must take special care to make sure that they not be harmed unless it is out of your control,” the judge said.
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Arechiga’s lawyer noted how there is “nothing she can do to go back there and rewrite history, but she can only … do better by what she does forward, and that is making sure this never happens again,” according to WZZM.
Authorities accused Arechiga of leaving her daughter, Julieta Magdelena, unsupervised and “unrestrained” for 15 minutes in her pickup truck while it was parked in a grocery store parking lot near South Division Avenue and Hall Street. She was reportedly grabbing lunch for her husband.
“Angelica left Juliet, an 18-month-old child unattended in a vehicle for a period of 15 minutes unrestrained and with no adult supervision which posed an unreasonable risk of harm or injury to Juliet, causing her death,” Arechiga’s probable cause affidavit said, according to WOOD.
Magdelena’s death was listed as “asphyxiation via wedge” and the manner of death was reported as an accident, according to WZZM.
“Horrible things can happen when children are left alone in a vehicle for even a short period of time,” Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker told WOOD. Witnesses who were inside the grocery store where Arechiga left her car parked said she came rushing inside in a panic after coming out to find her daughter unconscious.
“She just comes in screaming,” a worker recalled, asking WOOD to remain anonymous. “We were confused … (the toddler) had Cheetos dust on her hands so we were like, ‘Maybe she was (choking) on her chips?’ So my cousin started patting her on the back but when her mom was able to talk, she was like ‘No, no …. she got her head stuck … and she’s not breathing.'”
First responders reported that the toddler’s pulse was “faint” when they first arrived on the scene, according to WOOD. “It was the saddest thing,” the worker said. “When (the mom) said that (Juliet) was playing with her sister (in the truck), I thought the sisters were at least 6, 8 or 10 years old. But when they came out walking, they were like 4, 5, and there was a baby.”
WOOD spoke to Arechiga after her arrest about what happened to her daughter.
“I just want people to know that this was an accident,” Arechiga said while crying, per the report. “Yes, I could have done things differently that day. But I’ve learned from my mistakes. If I could go back in time to change things, I would, but I can’t.”
An online obituary for Magdelena describes the child as a “loving and sweet baby” who was a “daddy’s girl.”
“She was very smart and was already talking and practicing saying ‘thank you’ and ‘you’re welcome’ in Spanish,” the obituary says. “Julieta seemed to enjoy watching the world and taking in everything around her, silently watching and learning from everyone in her life.”
