The judge wanted Lisa Marie Morris to be a lesson to all other parents — if you forget your child in a hot car, you go to jail.
Morris, 26, was sentenced last week to five years in prison followed by five years on probation for leaving her baby inside her car. Morris and her cousin had returned to her Augusta, Ga., area home after running errands on Aug. 7, 2008, and Morris says she thought the cousin had brought the child inside. Instead, Dalton Morris, who was just six weeks old, died in the car, where temperatures reached up to 126 degrees.
Morris pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and asked the judge not to send her to jail because she needs to take care of her 5-year-old daughter.
But Judge Michael N. Annis showed no mercy, the Augusta Chronicle reported. He said that Dalton’s death was completely preventable.
A teacher’s aide apparently forgot to take her seven-month-old girl to a babysitter and instead left the child in a school parking lot while she worked on Friday. Addeleena Sanchez died after being left in the car for five hours on Friday at Bowie Elementary School near Dallas, the Corsicana Daily Sun reported.
The child’s mother, 23, called her babysitter around 1:20 p.m., and that’s when she realized that she had forgotten the girl in the car. The temperature then in Corsicana, Tex., was 89 degrees. Police are investigating and have not yet decided whether to charge the mother.
So far this year, 29 kids have died after being left in hot cars. See stories about the tragedies here.
A Texas father says he “just totally forgot” to drop off his toddler son at daycare and instead left him in a hot car while he spent the day at work.
Kesen Hu, 34, went to his job at PayPal in the Austin, Tex., area at 9:20 a.m. last Wednesday, and seven hours later, returned to the car, where he found his son dead. Eighteen-month-old Daniel had died of hyperthermia, police said.
Now authorities are arguing over whether Hu should be charged. Police told the Austin-American Statesman that the investigation had not been finished, but that the district attorney wanted to quick action. Hu has now been charged with felony child endangerment. District Attorney John Bradley said that he wanted to send a message about child safety.
So far this year, 28 kids have died from heat stroke or hyperthermia after being left in hot cars.
One-year-old Giselle Gomez was so overheated after being left in a car that her face and body became covered with yellow heat blisters. The child died on Wednesday, and now her mother, Jennifer Gomez, has been jailed and charged with felony child endangerment.
Jennifer Gomez, 22, had left Giselle and her two-year-old sister in the car while she visited at relative at an insurance agency in Belleville, Mo. The kids had been sleeping, and the car’s engine was left running, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
The older child might have accidently turned on the heater, but later managed to leave the car and was not injured, detectives told the newspaper. Giselle wasn’t so lucky — she was strapped into a car seat — and was trapped inside the hot vehicle for at least an hour. The outside temperature at the time was 89 degrees.
A four-year-old girl died of heat exposure after falling asleep in her family’s SUV while it was parked at a fleamarket in Brownsville, Tex., on on Sunday. Her mom has been charged with felony abandonment and/or endangerment of a child.
Felicitas Alexandra Cordova is the 23rd child this year to die from hypothermia or heat stroke as a result of being in a hot, parked vehicle, according to a S.F. State meterologist who tracks the trend. More info on hot-car deaths nationwide is here.
The high temperature on Sunday in Brownsville was 96 degrees. Olga Salazar, 37, was running three booths at the flea market with her older children when she lost track of Felicitas, authorities said. It’s unclear why the girl opened the door and got inside the vehicle.
“She went in there and went to sleep or was in there sleeping,” Police Lt. Orlando Rodriguez told the Brownsville Herald. “She could have easily gone in there and lost consciousness (from) the heat, which is something that unfortunately happens.”
A five-month-old Florida boy died after his mother accidently left him in her SUV when she went to work, police said. Gannon Werking had been in the car from about 8:30 a.m. Thursday until his mom discovered him the back seat of her gray Ford Edge at about 5 p.m., parked outside an office building, the Treasure Coast Palm reported.
A passerby called 911 after he saw Stephanie Werking “screaming hysterically” in the parking lot, authorities said. The high temperature in Vero Beach on Thursday was 90 degrees.
She cared enough about the sick pet, but the baby got left behind. A suburban Atlanta mom left her 2-month-old baby boy in her sweltering SUV as she took her pet to the vet last Thursday, police said. She did, however, take her other two kids inside the office with her.
A passerby called cops after spotting the sweating child, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. He had been in the Ford Expedition for about 40 minutes, with the windows rolled up, authorities said. The temperature inside was estimated at 90 degrees.
The baby was treated at a hospital and released into the care of other relatives. His mother, 38-year-old Dawn Myers, was arrested and charged with cruelty to children. It was not reported what type of pet she took to the vet’s office and that animal’s condition.
A Louisiana mom was asleep when her two young children got into her unlocked car, parked in front of the family home. The 3-year-old got out, but then inadvertently locked the doors with his 2-year-old brother still inside, police said.
The toddler later died on Thursday. His mom, Hollie Ann Simon, 25, of Jennings, La., has been charged with negligent homicide, the American Press reported. Other kids in the household — ages 7, 5 and 3 — told police that they had tried to wake up Simon. Evenutally, they said, the toddler quit crying and “went to sleep,” Detective Jean Cooley told the newspaper. A family member who stopped by the house to check on the kids discovered the toddler.
Simon had fallen asleep shortly after getting home from work at 6:30 a.m. It was unclear how long the child had been in the car. The high temperature that day was 91 degrees.
Three-month-old Elle Runnion was left in a hot car for more than seven hours on Thursday in Kansas, where temperatures reached into the 90s. Her parents had accidently forgotten about her when they parked outside a business, the Salina Journal reported. Additional details were unavailable.
At least one child has died of hyperthermia or heat stroke each week since June.
Daniel Slutsky became the second child this week to die in a hot vehicle after being accidently left behind by a day care worker.
Daniel, 2, was forgotten for 6 and a half hours in a car with the windows rolled up outside a daycare center in suburban Philadelphia. Rimma Shuartsman, the operator of Fairy Tales Day Care and also his neighbor, had been taking the boy to the facility three times a week since September, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. But on Wednesday morning, she apparently forgot to take him out of his car seat.
Daniel died of hyperthermia. The high temperature was only 83 degrees, but that’s enough to turn a locked car into an oven. Police are investigating and haven’t made a decision on whether to charge Shuartsman.