With her jail cell nearby and her eight-month-old daughter in her arms, the 40-year-old accused mother is heard yelling out to authorities...
"Why can't I get a hold of her dad so she can go to her cousins, so she won't have to go in the system?" she asked.
Montgomery County Precinct 4 constables say just prior, Jessica Gutierrez, a mother of two, was arrested, she was spotted driving recklessly along FM 1314 near Kingwood. Deputy constables say when they arrived they found her intoxicated behind the wheel of her car which was packed full of stuff. And underneath a skateboard and clothes, authorities found the mom's baby girl in a car seat.
Authorities say Gutierrez admitted she had taken Xanax, Prozac, drank a beer and had smoked some potpourri before driving her daughter around.
"That's unacceptable," said one neighbor. "You can't treat a baby like that."
Neighbor Cathy Meredith said, "The baby's life is in danger. It could have suffocated."
But Gutierrez's neighbor says, while she doesn't agree with the accused mother's behavior…
"There are two sides to every story," Denise Sayers said. "It was not right for her to drive that way with the baby, but as far as I know, she was a good mother."
This neighbor says Gutierrez was evicted from her home Wednesday and was trying to find a place to stay.
"I think everything snowballed on her yesterday," Sayers explained.
"She could have gotten a family member to take the baby," Meredith said. "It's an innocent life. There's no reason for her to do something so ignorant and put that baby's life in danger."
Deputy constables say the eight-month-old baby was properly restrained. Still, Gutierrez is charged with driving while intoxicated with a child under 15 years old. The baby girl and her 12-year-old brother are staying with relatives.
