Phoenix mother arrested after leaving baby and toddler home alone

PHOENIX — A Phoenix woman was arrested after police say she left her baby and toddler home alone unsupervised for more than an hour, according to court documents.

Rubielle Appallonia Lerma, 28, left her two daughters, born in 2022 and 2024, alone for about an hour and 55 minutes at 11 p.m. on June 1, according to court documents.

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Officers found Lerma and her boyfriend at another address and she told police her three children were in the car with her, but officers only noticed one child in the car, documents state. . Lerma and her boyfriend told police they did not know where the children were, but that they may have been in her apartment being watched by a neighbor.

Lerma later told police the children may have been with her mother, but when officers called her mother, she said she hadn't seen the children “in months,” according to court documents . She continually provided misleading information to police about the whereabouts of her children, documents state.

The children were eventually found in his apartment, near McDowell Road and 40th Street, alone, without an adult or guardian, according to court documents.

The Department of Child Safety responded to the scene.

Lerma was arrested and charged with reckless child abuse.

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