ONLY ON 13: Charges dropped against daycare owner accused of endangering children

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) -- The Harris County District Attorney's office has dropped child endangerment charges against a daycare owner accused of leaving multiple young children in a car alone in 90-degree weather.

The woman's attorney told ABC13 the children were left alone, but not as long as originally thought.

"It's not fair, we are supposed to be their protectors, and they were in someone's care that was meant to be protecting them, and she did not do that," an aunt of two of the boys in the car said. She did not share her name to protect the identity of her nephews.

On August 1, 2025, 32-year-old Domonique Wilson was accused of leaving five children, including infants, in a car alone while she took her two children inside a Kroger.

A Kroger employee told ABC13 on the day of the incident that store surveillance video showed the kids sat in the hot car for 40 minutes.

Nine months later, the five child endangerment charges brought against Wilson have been dismissed. The Harris County District Attorney said they could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

"It's intentional what she did because she took her own children into the store," the aunt said.

At the time of the incident, Wilson had a 'Listed Family Home' license according to the Department of Health and Human Services, which would have allowed her to care for three children in her home. Wilson closed her license a month after the incident, according to the HHS office.

We knocked on Wilson's last known address, but the woman who answered us said Wilson no longer lived there.

We did get a hold of Wilson's public defender, Markay Stroud, who said surveillance video from the store shows the children were in the car for 15 minutes, not 40, and that she would have argued the car was on when Wilson went into the store, and one of the children turned it off.

"And 15 minutes is too long," the aunt said.

Texas law says a person can be charged with a misdemeanor if a child younger than seven is left alone in a car for five minutes.

Court records say the cases can be refiled; that language is typical when a case is dismissed.

After Wilson's attorney admitted the children were left in a car alone, ABC13 asked the DA why they dropped the charges, but they did not answer that question.