Prosecutor: Mom lied about baby’s hot car death to save herself

The mother accused of leaving her baby in a car to die while getting her hair done told false stories to DeKalb County police, a detective testified Thursday.

Keith McQuilkin testified that Dijanelle Fowler, 25, gave three false accounts of what happened before finally breaking down and telling the baby’s father she’d been at the hair salon. The father, Louis Williams II, who was deployed in the Air Force reserves when the child died, told police what his ex had told him.

Prosecutor Lance Cross said Fowler went into "self-preservation mode" and lied to protect herself.

Stoic in an orange jailhouse jumpsuit, the mother, a former college basketball player, showed no visible reaction to the testimony.

Fowler, charged with second-degree murder in the death of Skylar Fowler, has been in jail without bond since last month.

Police allege she left the child in a car for nearly six hours outside a Lavista Road salon.

Detectives don’t believe she intended to hurt the child, as evidenced by her decision to leave the air conditioning running.

At some point, the car shut off, leaving the Georgia heat of June to claim the baby.

Her attorney, Charles Brant, told reporters the mother might have been “naive” to keep the child in the car, but she was a loving mother.

Visit myAJC.com for more about the hearing.