Dad Charged After Baby Left in Hot Car Dies

A suburban New York father is being held on homicide charges after his infant son died inside a sweltering car where temperatures hit an estimated 119 degrees, police and prosecutors said Wednesday.

Devon A. Fenner, 25, of Hempstead, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment to a charge of criminally negligent homicide. He faces up to four years in prison if convicted. A judge set bond at $50,000 for Fenner, who has an arrest record.

Fenner called 911 at about 1:40 p.m. Tuesday, telling authorities that he had accidentally left his 7-month-old son, Derrick Fenner, in a car seat inside his 2003 Toyota Corolla. The child was in the car about 30 minutes before he was rescued. EMTs tried to perform CPR, but the child died about 40 minutes later at a nearby hospital.

Inspector Kenneth Lack, a Nassau County police spokesman, said investigators found that all the windows were shut except for a small crack in the driver’s-side window.

“Unfortunately, cracking a window on a 90-degree day doesn’t do much,” Lack said. Temperatures on Long Island on Tuesday were in the middle to high 80s.

Fenner and the baby’s mother live with their 7-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter. He said Child Protective Services authorities would conduct a separate investigation, but for the present the children were being cared for by their mother.

This article appeared in print on page 4 of the August 22nd, 2013 edition of Hamodia.