GOSHEN – A Middletown woman whose 2-year-old child died after allegedly being left alone in a car for eight hours last September was arraigned on an indictment charging her with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.
The arraignment took place Jan. 21 in Orange County Court.
Zenaida Soriano-Rincon, 33, of Middletown, is charged with second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, both felonies.
According to Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler, it was alleged in documents filed and statements made in court that on Sept. 19, 2025, Soriano-Rincon brought her child to work with her because she had no babysitter.
She left the child in the car with the windows up or only slightly open on a day when the high temperature reached approximately 78 degrees, from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m., and only checked on the child once.
After her shift, Soriano-Rincon brought the child to a doctor’s office. The child was found to have no pulse and was transported to Garnet Health Medical Center in Middletown. At Garnet, where the child was pronounced dead, authorities said.
At that time, the child had a body temperature of approximately 108.9 degrees.
After the arraignment, Soriano-Rincon was sent without bail to Orange County Jail, pending a conference on Feb. 2.
“The blameless victim in this case suffered for the alleged reckless conduct of this defendant,” Hoovler said in a statement released by his office. “The outcome in this case was as tragic as it was preventable.”
Soriano-Rincon is being represented by the Legal Aid Society of Orange County. A representative of the society could not immediately be reached for comment.
Mike Randall covers breaking news for the Times Herald-Record and the Poughkeepsie Journal. Reach him at mrandall@th-record.com.
This article originally appeared on Times Herald-Record: Middletown woman indicted for 2-year-old’s death in hot car
Reporting by Mike Randall, Middletown Times Herald- Record / Times Herald-Record
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