Mother of child abandoned in the Bronx arrested

BRONX (WABC) -- The mother of a boy who was abandoned in the Bronx has been arraigned on charges of reckless endangerment and abandonment of a child, both felonies.

Diana Paniagua, 29, of the Bronx was arrested Monday night.

Sources say detectives received a tip with the mom's identity. She was taken into custody at around 8:15 p.m. Monday at the intersection of Boynton and Watson avenues in the Soundview section.

The boy, named Jayden Illesca, according to the complaint, remains in the custody of ACS. He is nearly 2.

Jayden was found on East 141st Street and Rider Avenue sitting in a blue stroller around 5:30 a.m. Monday. According to the official complaint for the case, witness Jason Alexander, a delivery man, saw a woman pushing the stroller with a baby in it, then saw the same woman a short time later walking without the stroller. Alexander told authorities that he saw the toddler "alone, crying, and laying in a stroller."

The child was taken to Lincoln Hospital.

"I heard the sound of a baby crying at which point I went down the block," Alexander said. "I picked him up. I put him in the truck, and I called the police and waited for the police to get here so I could turn the baby over to them."

Earlier, Alexander said he saw the woman pushing the boy's stroller. He thought she was drunk.

"She was kind of stumbling around when I seen her. I asked her, 'Are you OK? Do you need help, cause there is a hospital right up the street?' like she was trying to get to the hospital," he said.

Bail for Paniagua was set at $1,000 cash or bond.