Gwinnett County mom charged in son's hot car death in can attend funeral
Deja Coleman booking photo (Credit: Gwinnett County Sheriff's Office)
GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. - A Gwinnett County mother charged with second-degree murder after her 1-year-old son died in a hot car will be allowed to attend the child's funeral Saturday.
What we know:
A judge granted 29-year-old Deja Coleman permission to attend the 1 p.m. service at Hollifield Mortuary Chapel in Atlanta.
Coleman remains behind bars without bond in the Gwinnett County Detention Center.
What happened
The backstory:
Investigators accuse Coleman of leaving her 1-year-old son inside her vehicle while she worked an approximately eight-hour shift at Northside Hospital Gwinnett on July 29.
Coleman was later charged with second-degree murder in connection with the child's death.
Her family and attorney have argued that what happened was a devastating mistake rather than a criminal act.
Defense challenges murder charge
What they're saying:
Coleman appeared in court Tuesday for a scheduled preliminary hearing alongside her attorney, Tom Ford.
Ford asked the judge to dismiss the murder charge, arguing that Coleman's son's death did not amount to murder.
"Murder, this is not. A dead child in a 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," Ford said.
Ford also sought a way for Coleman to attend her son's funeral without handcuffs.
The judge explained during Tuesday's hearing that she did not have jurisdiction to decide Coleman's bond and that the preliminary hearing was intended to determine whether there was probable cause to move the case forward.
Ford ultimately waived the preliminary hearing, sending the case directly to Gwinnett County Superior Court.
PREVIOUS STORIES
- Gwinnett mother charged after boy dies in hot car
- Mother charged in Gwinnett County hot car death was on autopilot, lawyer says
- Gwinnett mom lawyer asks to drop murder count
Family says son's death was a mistake
What they're saying:
Following Tuesday's hearing, Coleman's relatives, supporters and a neuroscientist spoke outside the jail.
The expert argued that stress and sleep deprivation can contribute to a failure in brain function that results in a parent unintentionally leaving a child in a vehicle.
Coleman's supporters have maintained that she loved her son and did not intentionally leave him in the car.
Coleman remains charged with second-degree murder.