Georgia nursing assistant Deja Coleman has been granted temporary release from jail to attend the funeral of her one-year-old son, Daniel. The 29-year-old mother was charged with second-degree murder and second-degree cruelty to children after leaving the toddler inside a sweltering car in the employee parking lot of Northside Gwinnett Hospital on July 29.
On Friday, Judge Turner granted Coleman's request for a temporary furlough to attend the baby's funeral service, scheduled for Saturday at Hollifield Mortuary Chapel in Atlanta. Coleman has been held without bond at the Gwinnett County Jail since her arrest last month.
Coleman's defense attorney, Tom Ford, described the judge's decision as an unprecedented move based on humanitarian concerns. "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," Ford told 11Alive.
Ford added that "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." The Gwinnett County Sheriff's Office will decide whether Coleman will be handcuffed during the services, what clothes she will wear, and how long she will be permitted to attend.
Funeral Furlough and Housing Background
In a bond motion filed on Monday, Ford revealed that Coleman is a domestic violence survivor who lived in a Gwinnett County transitional housing community. As a single mother, she was raising three young children alone: a six-year-old child with nonverbal autism who requires special attention, a four-year-old, and one-year-old Daniel.
According to the defense motion, Coleman was running on almost no sleep and was severely exhausted on the morning of Daniel's death. Law enforcement noted that dropping her two older children off at daycare was part of her normal routine because her oldest child has medical needs requiring special attention.
After dropping off her older children, Coleman drove to Northside Gwinnett Hospital, where she worked as a certified nursing assistant, arriving at 6:55 a.m. However, she failed to realize that Daniel was still inside his car seat in the back seat of the vehicle.
Hot Car Discovery and Defense Response
Investigators believe the toddler remained trapped inside the vehicle for more than eight hours while Coleman worked inside the hospital. Temperatures inside the car reached a scorching 117 degrees Fahrenheit.
Shortly before 4:00 p.m., a hospital employee spotted the child's lifeless body slumped over in his car seat in the employee parking lot and alerted emergency services. First responders rushed to the scene and smashed the car window to reach the child, attempting lifesaving measures, but the toddler could not be revived.
Ford has argued for the murder charges against Coleman to be dropped, contending that the death was a tragic mistake by an exhausted mother. "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 remains held without bond at the Gwinnett County Jail as legal proceedings continue. Her next court hearing in the case is scheduled for September 9.
