Wandering Child Leads to Conviction

By Raul Fernandez

(SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb.) — On September 9, 2025, Dave Eubanks (Scotts Bluff County Attorney) was successful on his second guilty verdict this year for Jenna M. Herrera for child abuse.

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On June 10, 2025 at approximately 7:30 a.m., the communication center received a report of a 3 or 4 year old walking down the middle of the road around the 300 block of W 20th Street. According to an affidavit by Officer Kaleb, upon arrival, he spotted some individuals standing on the corner with a child.

Officers knocked on several doors in the area, some of which had toys in the front yard, in attempts to locate the parents. None of the houses contacted were missing a child.

The child was taken to the police station at 8:45 a.m. and shortly thereafter, Jenna Herrera met them and explained she had just woken up 15 minutes ago. She stated she lived in South Dakota and did not know the address where she was staying in town.

Through their investigation, they learned she was on probation and proceeded to arrest Herrera. While being searched at Scotts Bluff County Detention Center, it was discovered in her possession two THC cartridges and what she admitted was an orange edible.

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Jenna M. Herrera was previously found guilty of two counts of possession of methamphetamine in September of 2024, and lost her appeal in April 2025.

(GERING, Neb.)– on October 28,2025 Jenna Herrera was sentenced to 100 days. Before delivering the Sentence the State made the comment that she had failed to meet with probation for this case combined with the fact that she was already on probation when this offense occurred probation was not appropriate and that”anything less than incarceration would deprecate the seriousness of the offense”. The defendant’s legal council argued that 3 days which she had already served would be enough and that she needed to be out of jail so she could continue her progress with her children. The Honorable Judge Worden before handing the sentence of 100 days noted that she was indeed found guilty of the offense by a jury and given her lengthy criminal history, 4 pages worth, time served nor probation would be appropriate.