SHE LEFT FOR WORK EXHAUSTED… HOURS LATER, HER LITTLE BOY WAS D-EAD..! – JAILED MOM GRANTED RELEASE TO SAY GOODBYE AT HER TODDLER’S FUNERAL AFTER DEVASTATING HOT-CAR TRAGEDY.
A Georgia domestic abuse survivor who left her baby to die inside a sweltering hot car has been granted permission to leave jail to attend his funeral.
Nursing assistant Deja Coleman, 29, was charged with murder after her one-year-old son, Daniel, was found dead inside her locked car in the Northside Gwinnett Hospital parking lot on July 29.
The single mother had allegedly driven to the hospital, where she worked as a nursing assistant, at 6.55am after dropping off her two older children at daycare but had failed to realize that her youngest son was still in the car.
Her lawyer says Daniel’s death was a tragic mistake made by an exhausted mother of three young children who was living in transitional housing after fleeing an abusive relationship.
Investigators believe the boy remained trapped inside the vehicle for more than eight hours as Coleman worked inside the hospital and temperatures inside the car reached a scorching 117 degrees Fahrenheit.
Coleman has been held without bond at the Gwinnett County Jail since being arrested and charged with second-degree murder and second-degree cruelty to children last month.
On Friday, a judge granted her request to be temporarily released and allowed to attend the baby’s funeral service at Hollifield Mortuary Chapel in Atlanta on Saturday.
‘In the 30 years I’ve practiced law, there has never been such a request made by me nor such a request granted, so I think this is an atypical, unprecedented event where, pre-conviction, while in custody, we’ve got to do a furlough for humanitarian concerns,’ Coleman’s defense attorney, Tom Ford, told 11 Alive.
‘Judge Turner made the decision with the input of learned counsel from Dan Mayfield and the input of learned counsel of the State of Georgia.’
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Deja Coleman, 29, was charged with murder after her one-year-old son, Daniel, was found dead inside her locked car
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Coleman allegedly dropped her other two children off at daycare, then forgot about Daniel in the backseat when she went to work
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It is unclear whether she will be hand-cuffed during the services, what she will wear and how long she will be able to attend. Ford said those decisions will be made by the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office.
In a bond motion filed by Ford on Monday, he revealed that Coleman is a domestic violence survivor who lives in a Gwinnett County transitional housing community.
The motion said Coleman was a certified nursing assistant who was a single mother raising a six-year-old with nonverbal autism and a four-year-old alone.
Coleman was allegedly exhausted and running on almost no sleep on the day that Daniel died, according to the motion.
Police previously said that Coleman had dropped off her two older children at a daycare on the day of Daniel’s death.
Law enforcement noted that this was part of her normal routine, as her older child has medical needs that require ‘special attention.’
However, she forgot to bring the one-year-old inside upon returning to her car.
Shortly before 4pm, a hospital employee spotted the child’s lifeless body slumped over in the car seat and alerted emergency services.
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Coleman’s attorney said she is a domestic violence survivor who lived in community housing and was running on little to no sleep when the tragedy happened
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On Friday, a judge granted her request to be temporarily released and allowed to attend the baby’s funeral service
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Daniel was found dead in his car seat in the employee parking lot of Northside Gwinnett Hospital on July 29 when Coleman worked as a nursing assistant
First responders rushed to the scene and smashed the car window to reach the child, before attempting lifesaving measures, but despite best efforts the toddler was unable to be revived.
Ford has argued for the murder charges to be dropped.
‘Murder, this is not,’ Ford said. ‘A dead child in the car with a wailing mother in the parking lot is not murder. I don’t care what the statute says. It is a mistake, because you have a dead child does not make it a crime.’
Coleman’s next court hearing is scheduled for September 9.
