Wichita man stole minivan with 3 children and the keys left inside as mom paid for gas

A Wichita man has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison after admitting to stealing a van that had three young children inside.

The vehicle theft happened as a mother went into a South Broadway convenience store, leaving her keys in the vehicle, along with a 2-year-old, a 1-year-old and an 8-month-old. She also left her phone, which helped police find the stolen minivan.

Jason Barajas was sentenced by Judge William Woolley on Tuesday to 47 months in prison, District Attorney Marc Bennett said in a news release. Barajas, 32, previously pleaded guilty to theft and aggravated endangering of a child.

The crime happened at around 3:49 p.m. on June 19, 2019, when Wichita police were called to the D&C Store at 2160 S. Broadway. A woman told officers that she had walked into the convenience store to buy something and left her three children in the van.

Police documents show that she was pre-paying for gas.

She also left the keys and phone inside the van, which was carjacked while she was shopping, Bennett said. Police pinged the cellphone and found the vehicle about 30 minutes later abandoned in the 1500 block of South Gold.

The windows were rolled up on the 2010 Chrysler Town and Country. The temperature was about 80 degrees at the time. Officers found the three young children were sweating from the heat and crying in the backseat, police wrote in court documents.

Investigators also found a second phone in the van, which they used to help identify Barajas, Bennett said. They later determined that he had been sitting in a car parked next to the van at the convenience store and watched the mom go inside.

Barajas was arrested that night in a traffic stop at Kellogg and Tyler. He was driving a different stolen vehicle, and he had methamphetamine and an open Budweiser beer bottle, police records show.

This story was originally published December 8, 2020 at 5:54 PM.