The owner of a Jonesboro daycare and her daughter were sentenced today to time in the Clayton County Jail to be followed by probation for leaving a 2-year-old in a sweltering daycare van where she died.
Clayton Superior Court Judge Matthew Simmons ordered Marlo Maria Fallings, owner of Marlo’s Magnificent Learning Center, to spend 90 days in jail and then another nine months on probation for the reckless conduct conviction a month ago for the death of Jazmin Green.
Fallings’ daughter, Quantabia Shantell Hopkins, a teacher at the school, was sentenced 30 days in the Clayton County Jail and then almost 10 years probation for two counts of involuntary manslaughter, reckless conduct and contributing to the deprivation of a child, who was left behind in a van, strapped in a car seat, on a sweltering afternoon almost three years ago
Though Hopkins was convicted of the more serious crimes, Simmons said he was giving Fallings more time in jail because he considered her to be ultimately responsible for putting her daughter and a teenager in charge of taking eight toddlers on an outing and in charge of seeing that all children were taken from the van. Hopkins had put the 16-year-old in charge of getting the children off the back bench of the van, were Jazmin was.
Simmons then gave the two 10 days more of freedom to give them time to make arrangements, including finding care for Hopkins’ 2-year-old son.
They have been free since their convictions on a month ago.
A jury on April 19 acquitted both women of murder.
Jazmin’s mother was furious about the punishment and that the two women can put off going to jail.
“These people got away with murder for killing my damn child,” said April McAlister. “It wasn’t a key chain you left in the van. It wasn’t a coat. It was a human being. What the judge did was wrong. The judge gave them time to go home… They get to go home for 10 days to celebrate, to barbecue.”
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