Hot car deaths of infants in Georgia are emotive after a recent headline-grabbing case in which a suburban dad was convicted of murder.
Justin Ross Harris was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murder of his 22-month-old son, Cooper.
The infant died in 2014 after his father left him in a hot car for seven hours while he went to work.
Prosecutors argued Harris intentionally locked Cooper inside the car because he wanted to be free of his family responsibilities.
Despite all of the publicity in the Harris case, another infant died in a hot car in Atlanta this summer.
Hot Car Deaths of Infants are widespread
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported a mother is accused of leaving her one-year-old son in a car while visiting a hair salon. She sought jail release.
Dijanelle Fowler, 25, was scheduled for a bond hearing in September in DeKalb County Superior Court. She faces charges of second-degree murder and child neglect in the death of her daughter, Skylar Fowler.
Although the mother left the air conditioning running in the car, she later found the child dead after she returned from a six-hour hair appointment.
Prosecutors said Fowler gave conflicting accounts about what happened. Initially, she suggested something went wrong while she watched her daughter at a relative’s home. Then she said she’d left her daughter with a friend while she was at her hair appointment.
Later Fowler said she left the baby at a relative’s home but forgot to tell anyone Skylar was there
She was charged with second-degree murder. The AJC reported other defendants charged with similar offenses were granted bond including a mother from South Georgia whose three-year-old son was found dead in a car.
These kinds of crimes attract large amounts of publicity which can impede the defendant’s chances of a fair trial. The Justin Ross Harris case attracted large amounts of publicity. If you have been charged with a serious offense in Georgia, please contact our criminal defense lawyers at (404) 913-1529.