REDWOOD CITY (BCN) -- A 22-year-old man accused of leaving his two young children home alone to go out drinking avoided prison time in a plea deal with prosecutors in San Mateo County Superior Court on Monday.
According to Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe, Abidan Eliel Garcia Vasquez had been charged with three felony counts of child endangerment, which carried a sentence of more than seven years in state prison.
On Monday, however, Vasquez pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor counts of child endangerment and now faces up to six months in county jail.
Vasquez's 3-year-old son was found the night of March 28 wandering alone in an unincorporated Redwood City neighborhood, shivering and clad only in a T-shirt and shorts.
San Mateo County sheriff's deputies learned the boy lived in a nearby home occupied by two families. When they went to the home, Wagstaffe says they found cockroaches, garbage and rotting food throughout the house and an open beer bottle on the floor.
Also at the home was a 1-year-old girl with a severe rash and abscesses on her legs and private parts.
Authorities discovered Vasquez had allegedly left the home around 9 p.m. after the children were asleep to go out drinking, and did not ask anyone to watch them.
Vasquez is scheduled to be sentenced July 28.
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