TIFFANY Joy Villanueva, who is accused of leaving her 2-year-old child and two other minor children unattended at 2 in the morning, was released to her two brothers as third-party custodians on Friday.
Through her court-appointed counsel, Frances Demapan, Villanueva, 27, requested the court to allow her to post 10% of the $5,000 cash bail and to release her to her two brothers.
Assistant Attorney General Samantha Vickery did not object.
Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho granted the defendant’s request after her two brothers assured him that they would call the police if she violated the conditions of her release.
As part of the conditional release, Villanueva, who has been charged with child neglect, was ordered not to have any contact with her children.
Witnesses told the police that they heard a baby crying on the early morning of April 7, 2021 at Sally’s Apartment in San Antonio.
They said they knocked on the locked door of Villanueva’s apartment, but no one answered so they called the police.
Responding officers gained entry into the apartment through one of the windows.
The officers said the room was “messy with empty bottles, food and other plates on top of one of the tables as well as unwashed dishes in the kitchen sink.”
They also saw “two juveniles sleeping on the bed to include the baby that was crying.”
The officers, who said they did not find any adult in the apartment unit, then summoned the Division of Youth Services to the scene.
Villanueva, in a freely given statement to the police, stated that she left the apartment before 2 a.m. to meet with a male friend in Koblerville. She said she “left her apartment and kids behind because she thought she was going to have fun.”
She said waited for the 2 a.m.-4 a.m. curfew to end before heading home.
She told the police that even though there wasn’t any other adult watching her children when she left, she did not inform her neighbors that she was going to leave her children unattended for some time.
