2 accused in daycare death out of jail

By Alexis Stevens

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The two adults accused of leaving a 2-year-old girl inside a Clayton County day care van, resulting in the child's death, were free on bond Tuesday evening.

The toddler, Jazmin Green, died Monday afternoon after being left in the van outside Marlo's Magnificent Early Learning Center near Jonesboro for two hours, police said. Hours later, the day care center's administrator and two staff members were charged with Jazmin's death.

Marlo Maria Fallings, 41, was arrested around 2 a.m. Tuesday on charges of cruelty to children, involuntary manslaughter and reckless conduct, according to police. Fallings' daughter, Quantabia Shantell Hopkins, 23, was arrested on the same charges. A third person, a juvenile, also was arrested.

Fallings and Hopkins, both of Riverdale, were released from the Clayton County jail shortly after 5 p.m. Tuesday after posting $35,000 bond, according to booking records.

After a field trip Monday to a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant, the day care center's van returned between 1:30 and 2 p.m. Staff members and other children went inside, but Jazmin was left in the van, police said. Temperatures reached the middle 90s Monday afternoon.

At about 3:30 p.m., Hopkins realized that Jazmin was not in the center. Hopkins went to the parking lot and found the toddler still in her car seat in the van, according to Clayton County police spokesman Officer John Schneller.

The child was transported to Southern Regional Medical Center in Riverdale, but did not survive, police said.

The child's mother, April McAlister, said she was happy about the arrests, but is angry about the senseless death of her child.

"I'm still in shock that they could be so irresponsible with my child's life," McAlister said.

She said her older son had attended the day care for four years and her daughter had attended for two years without incident. She said she found out about the day care from a flyer that was left on her car advertising the center five years ago.

"They taught my children a lot there," she said.

The center was closed Tuesday, but a parent that stopped by told Channel 2 Action News she was relieved her own son was not on the field trip.

"I wanted him to go," Chantae Reddick said. "To think that could’ve been my baby is crazy.”

Monday's death was the second in the metro Atlanta area in less than a month involving a child left inside a vehicle. On May 25, a five-month-old girl died after being left in a hot car for five hours outside a Kennesaw day care center.  In that incident, the 21-year-old cousin, who left the girl in the car while she went to work, was charged in her death.

The Clayton day care center was cited during a March visit by the state agency that monitors child care centers. The agency, Bright from the Start, cited the center  for not documenting a field trip and the children who were transported, according to the report.

State law requires that a check be done after the completion of each trip. The agency is investigating the death, according to spokewoman Stacey Moore. "Once the results of this investigation are determined, our agency will pursue all legal remedies as appropriate," she said.

Jan Null, a researcher in the Department of Geosciences at San Francisco State University, said his research has found temperatures in a car can quickly rise to deadly levels. With an outside air temperature of 92 degrees, the inside air temperature of the car could have been in excess of 135 degrees, Null said.

“When a body gets to 104 degrees, that’s the clinical definition of heat stroke,” Null said.

Bryant McAllister, Jazmin's uncle, said with temperatures being so hot, the day care center staff should have been extra cautious when transporting children.

"My baby suffered in that van," he said.

Funeral arrangements for Jazmin were incomplete Tuesday evening.

-- Staff writer Fran Jeffries contributed to this report.