Georgia Charges Mother With Murder After 17-Month-Old Dies in 117-Degree Hot Car

3 articles · Updated · USA TODAY · Aug 15

Deja Coleman, 29, was charged with second-degree murder and cruelty to children after her 17-month-old son Daniel died July 29 in a locked car outside her Georgia workplace.
Police said Coleman forgot the baby after dropping off her other children at daycare; temperatures neared 90 degrees that day, and the car still measured 117 degrees an hour after officers broke a window.
Advocates say the case is an unusually aggressive prosecution because hot-car deaths are typically accidental; Kids and Car Safety says about 41% of such cases bring no charges.
Coleman's lawyer and child-safety advocates cited sleep deprivation, stress and a disrupted daycare routine, while neuroscientists say those factors can trigger memory failures and even false memories that a child was dropped off.
Daniel was the 17th U.S. child to die in a hot car in 2026 at the time of his funeral, and advocates are again pushing for daycare check-in laws and in-car alert technology.