A Wichita, Kansas man was charged with first-degree murder after leaving his 10-month-old foster daughter locked inside a car for roughly two hours while he smoked weed and watched televison on July 24.
According to a police affidavit released Monday, Seth Jackson, 29, left the infant in his car after picking her up from a sitter. Jackson had been out taking a different five-year-old foster child to a doctor’s appointment, and grabbed a pizza on the way back.
Jackson’s partner told police that the two smoked weed and ate the pizza, while watching one and a half episodes of Game of Thrones. At some point, a baby crying in an episode reminded Jackson that he left the child in the sweltering car, and both men rushed outside.
A foster father left baby girl to die in hot car as he watched Game of Thrones and smoked dope.http://t.co/31aPfxzSyN pic.twitter.com/vgA4lkjReK
— Matt Cullen (@Mattcullen1976) August 5, 2014
According to Wichita police detective Ryan Schomaker, Jackson carried the girl into the house, and tried to perform CPR on her, but her body was stiff and he couldn’t get her mouth to open. Jackson called 911, and repeatedly said, “I left her in the car, she’s dead, she’s dead.” Firefighters arrived but were unsuccessful in reviving the child.
Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett revealed that although the cause of death was hyperthermia, Jackson was charged first-degree murder because the child died during the commission of an inherently dangerous felony, aggravated endangering of a child. The case is not charged as intentional murder.
Foster dad smoked pot, watched "Game of Thrones" while 10-month-old was in hot car, police say http://t.co/sD6jEmHLT4 pic.twitter.com/nxIDlN55Wo
— NBC News (@NBCNews) August 5, 2014
Prosecutors do agree the circumstances are entirely different in Jackson’s case than that of the Justin Ross Harris case in Georgia. Harris has been accused of intentionally leaving his 22-month-old son in a hot SUV, while cheating on his wife.
In 2014, there have so far been 18 heatstoke deaths due to children being left in hot cars.
Child hot car death toll rises to 18 after yesterday's incident in Wichita #KS http://t.co/MNOWT7iv5q #USwx pic.twitter.com/DJLsYb665N
— Johnny Kelly (@stormchaser4850) July 25, 2014
Image via YouTube