S.S.

INTRODUCTION

Juvenile dependency cases are usually difficult, often tragic. But few are as horrific or as heartbreaking as this. Before us are two petitions for writ filed by the mother and father of two young girls, both under the age of five. The girls were detained after a domestic violence incident between the parents went horribly awry, resulting in the stabbing of the older child, then only two years old. The parents do not seek review of the juvenile court’s ruling setting a permanency planning hearing to potentially terminate their parental rights to the girls. Rather, they seek review of the court’s decision to deny father’s brother, Armando, temporary custody of the girls pending the hearing. We deny both petitions and hold the trial court did not abuse its discretion in maintaining the children in their current placement.

FACTS

S.S. (Father) and A.M. (Mother), an unmarried couple, are the parents of 1 two daughters, 3-year-old V. and 2-year-old D. In the early morning hours of December 19, 2021, Father appeared at his mother’s home in Costa Mesa with V. strapped into the passenger seat of the car without a car seat. The toddler had blood on her shirt, and

1 Mother…