Mom cooks child, gets probation

http://www.11alive.com/news/news_art...?storyid=50832

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Mom Gets Probation in Hot Car Death

A woman whose 3-year-old daughter died after being left inside a hot car received a sentence of five years probation in Fulton County Superior Court Friday. Prosecutors wanted Nakia Burgess to spend six years in prison.

The sentencing came after Burgess took the stand, accepted responsibility for Asan'te Burgess' death, and said there was no worse punishment than watching your own child die.

“I have images of her calling for me, grabbing for the window when I know she was calling for me because I was the one that always protected her, I was the one that loved her. Even all that stuff I’ve gone through, it still isn’t worse than what she had to go through and I’m going to have to live with that and deal with that for the rest of my life,” she said in court today. “Nothing’s gong to make that better, there’s no drug anybody can give me, there’s no counseling – it may help but it’s not going to take those images away.”

Burgess has since given birth to another child.

Burgess had entered a guilty plea to charges of involuntary manslaughter, reckless conduct, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

During the sentencing hearing, Burgess sobbed as a pediatric pathologist testified that Asan'te Burgess started to claw at herself as the temperature rose inside the parked car.

"She was clawing at herself to escape," testified Dr. Harry Lee Wilson. "This car was a torture car."

Judge Constance Russell called a short recess when Burgess ran from the courtroom

The judge in issuing the sentence said, “I could say go to jail for 20 years and that is going to impose any greater punishment than what a caring parent has to live with when they lose a child because of their own behavior.” .

Prosecutors say Burgess parked her car in the sun on the top floor of the Tower Place parking deck and knowingly left her daughter inside it as she went to work at her new job in October of 2002.

Burgess' attorney said the mother could not find a babysitter to care for her daughter, who suffered from Downs Syndrome. They said Burgess, who had recently moved from New Jersey, did not consider the effects of the Georgia heat and parked at the top because her daughter was afraid of the dark. She also checked on the child several times throughout the day.

It's estimated that the temperature inside the vehicle may have risen as high as 127 degrees.

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I love how the Judge actually called her a "caring parent".

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Originally Posted by Dolemite

I love how the Judge actually called her a "caring parent".

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Irresponsible as hell, yes, but she may still have cared for her child. I don't think she should have gotten off that easy at all, though.

That's really sad. Some parent did the same thing last summer in the Fairview mall parking lot. Ouch.

i dont get it. the girl was "trapped" in the car "grabbing for the window" and the lady just watched? unless im reading it wrong she just watched her kid bake in the car and did notihng about it?

nm it says further down she went to work. that whole "i have images in my head of her clawing" reads really weird and makes the story take on a whole new vibe.

Yeah, I didn't get that either. Unless she's just describing what she imagines her chile went through.

I like how the mom thought she'd be safer in the car than at home alone. That's cute.

The sentencing was too light. Sure, it was a mistake on the mother's part, but it was careless parenting. Leaving your child in your car while you work is no excuse. Opening the window, taking her out for some air, anything would have just been better than letting her suffocate in the car. I bet if a hooker did the same thing while she "worked," she would've recieved a heavier penatly than 5 years probation.

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Originally Posted by Judge

I could say go to jail for 20 years and that is going to impose any greater punishment than what a caring parent has to live with when they lose a child because of their own behavior.

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Quite possibly the stupidest sentence ever uttered by anyone.

The poor kid! That has to be one of the worst ways to die. Quite painful I assume... :(

It said she checked on the kid several times through the day...or so she says, anyway. I assume there were several large gaps mid-day when tempatures tend to be the highest (plus, she parked at the top of the parking deck, thus ensuring the kid had no shade). I don't know, it sounds fishy...the kid had Down's Syndrome, maybe she didn't want to spend the rest of her life caring for a retard so she left the kid in the car and let nature do the rest. It's not hard to believe in this day and age. People are scum.

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Originally Posted by Nomi

Irresponsible as hell, yes, but she may still have cared for her child. I don't think she should have gotten off that easy at all, though.

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If you were a 'caring' parent, would you even think of doing this? Forget about what the heat did to her, how safe is it to leave a mentally handicapped 3 year old alone in a car all day under any circumstance?