A Gwinnett County woman charged with second-degree murder in the hot car death of her 1-year-old son was allowed out of jail to attend his funeral on Saturday, August 15.
Deja Coleman has been held without bond in the Gwinnett County Jail since the tragic incident at Northside Hospital Gwinnett on July 29. She is also charged with second-degree cruelty to children in the death of her son, Daniel Coleman.
Coleman’s attorney, Tom Ford, said the sheriff’s office, the court and the prosecutor all met on Friday. A Superior Court judge signed an order allowing Coleman to leave the Gwinnett jail, be transported to the funeral and then back to the jail.
“The extent of the accommodations will depend on the circumstances and limited to maintain the security and safety of law enforcement personnel, the Defendant and the public,” the judge’s order said.
Ford asked that his client be allowed to attend the service in civilian clothes and no handcuffs, but his request was denied.
Ford asked that Coleman be released on bond to attend the funeral. He offered to let prosecutors re-indict Coleman after the funeral.
“It would be a resolution in good faith recognizing lack of prior history, recognizing the circumstances of the arrest,” Ford said during a hearing on Tuesday.
Daniel was locked inside his mother’s car for hours while she worked as a certified nursing assistant at the hospital in Lawrenceville, Georgia. Temperatures inside the vehicle soared to 114-degrees.
Ford claimed Coleman was sleep-deprived and caring for her two other children. He said Coleman was was up all night because Daniel was teething and crying.
Coleman told investigators she dropped her two older children at the daycare and drove to the hospital to start her shift at 6:50 a.m.
She parked in the employee lot and exited the vehicle. Somehow she forgot that Daniel was asleep in his car seat.
Hours later, a hospital employee walked by the car and saw Daniel slumped over in his car seat. She pounded on the window but got no response, so she contacted emergency services.
Ford said the baby’s death was “an honest, human error”.
Ford is calling for federal legislation to include back seat sensors in all new cars to prevent children from being left in hot cars.
“We do not punish folks in this country for being human,” Ford said in a statement. “The answer is engineering. Spending a couple of hundred dollars on a sensor when a car is built will ensure no more babies suffer an unimaginably horrific death.”