It’s now up to a Clayton County jury to decide whether the death of a 2-year-old girl, forgotten in a daycare center’s van on a sweltering June afternoon, was a crime that deserves punishment or a tragic accident that calls for acquittal.
Almost three years after Jazmin Green died, evidence was presented this week in the trial of the Jonesboro daycare’s owner and her daughter. Prosecutors and defense attorneys will make their closing arguments Friday. Then the jury will begin deliberating on two charges of murder and one charge of reckless conduct against owner Marlo Maria Fallings, and six counts of murder, cruelty to children and reckless conduct against Quantabia Shantell Hopkins.
Testimony, which ended Thursday, took less than two days.
Jurors were left with images of the lifeless body of Jazmin — wearing a pink and white top with pink barrettes in her hair — and pictures of an overturned child booster seat and a pink and white sneaker on the van floor.
Hopkins’ lawyer called only two brief witnesses to testify about the day Jazmin died. Fallings’ lawyer did not call anyone. Neither of the defendants testified.
Jazmin was left behind in a van in an unshaded parking lot at Marlo’s Magnificent Early Learning Center on June 20, 2011, after she and other youngsters returned from a field trip to Chuck E. Cheese. Following a headcount about an hour later, Jazmin was found unconscious in a car seat on the van’s back row.
The temperature outdoors was in the mid-90s.
There were several accounts during testimony of the timing of events that day:
What time did the van return with the toddlers who went on the field trip? One person put the time at 1:30 p.m. Another said it was after 2.
How long was Jazmin inside the closed van before she was discovered missing? Most witnesses said about an hour, but at least one said it was closer to 30 minutes.
How long did it take a daycare worker to call 911 once Jazmin was found unconscious inside the van? One witness said it was 10 minutes, while another said help was called immediately after the child was brought into the center.
Some who testified had trouble recalling details because of the years that have elapsed since the incident. Often they had to refer to police reports to refresh their memories.
This much was clear:
After the children returned from the early afternoon outing, Miesha Ridley, a 16-year-old girl who volunteered at the daycare, brought the children inside, telling other workers that all the toddlers were out of the van.
But after a headcount showed one child missing, a daycare worker found Jazmin still in the van.
The toddler was brought to an upstairs bathroom, where Fallings performed CPR until the first officer arrived.
Sgt. Byron Palmer of the Clayton County Police Department said he tried to revive Jazmin even though he couldn’t detect a heartbeat. Her entire body was damp, he testified.
Palmer said paramedics arrived at the center after he had completed one round of CPR — 30 chest compressions and breathing twice into Jazmin’s mouth. The officer, appearing emotional, said paramedics inserted an IV, scooped up the child, put her in an ambulance and drove off.
Dr. Jumoke Alim, the emergency room physician at Southern Regional Hospital, said he also tried to save Jazmin.
“Her heart was not beating,” Alim testified.
After 45 minutes, he pronounced Jazmin dead at 4:43 p.m.
Dr. Stacey Desamours, an associate medical examiner at the GBI Crime Lab, said Jazmin died of hyperthermia.
Desamours testified that the body’s natural reaction to extreme heat is to try to cool off by diverting blood away from vital organs and to the skin. She said children have a harder time tolerating heat because their systems are not yet developed.
“The body’s organs shut down,” Desamours said.
Ridley, the daycare’s teenage volunteer who had failed to realize Jazmin had been left inside the van, was eventually sentenced in 2011 to two years probation after pleading guilty in juvenile court to reckless conduct and involuntary manslaughter.
About the Author
