PHOENIX — A Phoenix woman was arrested after police said she left her baby and toddler home alone without supervision for more than an hour, according to court documents.
Rubielle Appallonia Lerma, 28, left her two daughters, born in 2022 and 2024, alone for around an hour and 55 minutes at 11 p.m. on June 1, court documents said.
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Officers found Lerma and her boyfriend at another address and she told police all three of her children were in the car with her, but officers noticed only one child in the car, documents said. Lerma and her boyfriend told police they did not know where the children were but they were possibly at her apartment being watched by a neighbor.
Lerma then told police the kids might be with her mother, but when officers called her mother she said she hadn't seen the kids "in months," court documents said. She continuously provided misleading information to police about where her children were, documents said.
The kids were eventually found at her apartment, near McDowell Road and 40th Street, alone with no adult or caretaker present, court documents said.
The Department of Child Safety responded to the scene.
Lerma was arrested and charged with reckless child abuse.
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