Couple arrested after three children found sweating inside unattended Jeep at Seminole Classic Casino, police say

A man and a woman were arrested early Sunday after casino security found three children alone and sweating inside a parked Jeep at the Seminole Classic Casino in Hollywood while the two adults were inside gambling, according to an arrest affidavit reported by WPLG Local 10. The children had been left for about an hour in the vehicle, which was turned off with its windows rolled up, the affidavit says.

Terrence Dirod Wright, 42, and Lillian Mun, 32, are each charged with three counts of child neglect without great bodily harm and two counts of leaving a child younger than 6 unattended in a motor vehicle. The children, described in the affidavit as Mun's, were checked by paramedics and did not need treatment. Their ages were redacted from the affidavit.

What police say happened

Officers were sent to the casino shortly after 1:30 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 1, after security personnel reported finding three children inside a vehicle that was not running in the property's north parking lot, according to Local 10's account of the affidavit. Security staff opened the door and found all three children conscious but sweating.

Seminole Fire Rescue medics evaluated the children at the scene and determined they did not require medical attention. Officers gave the children water while investigators worked to identify the adults responsible for them.

Investigators then reviewed casino surveillance video. According to the affidavit, Wright went into the casino shortly after the vehicle was parked. Cameras later recorded a woman matching Mun's description entering the building, and she was seen sitting at a slot machine near Wright and watching him gamble.

The affidavit says the two have been in a relationship for about three years and live together as a family. Mun described Wright as her fiancé and as a father figure and caregiver to the children, investigators wrote, which is why both adults were charged as people responsible for the children's care.

The children were released to a friend of Mun's, and the Florida Department of Children and Families was notified for a follow-up investigation, according to the report. Local 10's account did not include any statement from either defendant or an attorney representing them, and no bond amount had been reported.

The charges

The two adults face separate charges under two different Florida laws, and the penalties differ sharply.

Child neglect is defined in Section 827.03 of the Florida Statutes as a caregiver's willful failure, or failure through culpable negligence, to provide the care and supervision needed to protect a child's physical and mental health, including a single incident that could reasonably be expected to cause serious injury or a substantial risk of death. Neglect that does not cause great bodily harm, permanent disability or permanent disfigurement is a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison for each count.

The second charge comes from Section 316.6135, which bars a parent, guardian or other responsible person from leaving a child younger than 6 alone in a motor vehicle. The law has two tiers:

The same statute authorizes an officer who finds a child left in violation of the law to use whatever means are reasonably necessary to remove the child from the vehicle, and it directs that the child be placed with the Department of Children and Families if the responsible adult cannot be located. Because the vehicle charge applies only to children younger than 6, the two counts filed against each adult indicate that police believe at least two of the three children were under that age.

All of the charges are accusations. Wright and Mun are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.

Not the first case at the casino

The Seminole Classic Casino, on the Seminole Tribe of Florida's Hollywood reservation along State Road 7, has been the scene of similar arrests before. In 2014, a mother and her boyfriend were arrested on child neglect charges after police said they left her 4-year-old daughter asleep in a car while they gambled there; the girl woke up and began screaming. In 2015, a mother was accused of leaving four children, ages 1 to 13, in a minivan in the casino's lot while she gambled, a case in which prosecutors later dropped two of the charges, Local 10 reported.

The tribe's larger Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Hollywood, a few miles away on the same reservation, has had its own string of cases, including a 2022 arrest of a Georgia woman accused of leaving her three children in a car overnight in a parking garage while she played poker.

Why closed vehicles are dangerous even at night

Sunday's arrests came in the early morning hours of November, not on a summer afternoon, and the children were not injured. But a parked vehicle with the engine off and the windows up loses airflow quickly, and South Florida's warm, humid nights can leave the interior uncomfortable or unsafe for young children, who heat up faster than adults.

Florida has recorded more pediatric vehicular heatstroke deaths than any state except Texas since national tracking began in 1998, according to data cited by state and local safety agencies, and at least four Florida children had died in hot vehicles by early July this year. Police and child safety advocates urge anyone who sees a child alone in a car to call 911 immediately.

What's next

Wright and Mun are expected to make an initial appearance before a Broward County judge, who would set bond and conditions of release, which in child neglect cases often include restrictions on contact with the children. The Broward State Attorney's Office will decide whether to formally file the charges as arrested or amend them. Separately, the Department of Children and Families investigation will determine whether the agency takes any action regarding the children's care.