Overview
- Investigators say 17-month-old Daniel Coleman was left in his mother’s car during her shift at Northside Gwinnett Hospital and was found dead after Deja Coleman was arrested on July 29.
- Gwinnett County prosecutors charged Coleman with second-degree murder and felony child cruelty, an offense in Georgia that carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years.
- Coleman’s lawyer and child-safety experts say the death fits the pattern known as Forgotten Baby Syndrome, a stress- and sleep-related memory failure that defenders say is an accidental physiological lapse rather than deliberate neglect.
- A judge denied motions to reduce charges and to release Coleman on an unsecured bond but granted her a guarded police transport to attend her son’s funeral while she remains in custody; a request by a nonprofit grief counselor to visit in person was refused and a video visit is being negotiated.
- After the arrest the two older children were first given to their father and are now living with their daycare administrator, Pamela Adrien, and Coleman’s next court date is scheduled for Sept. 9 as the case fuels questions about prosecutorial choices and U.S. hot-car death data.