A Clayton County daycare owner and her daughter collapsed Friday after being convicted in the death of a toddler who had been in their care.
But cries of “Thank you, Lord!” rang out when the women’s supporters realized the guilty verdicts were for misdemeanors. Moments earlier the jury had acquitted the mother and daughter of two counts each of murder.
Marlo Maria Fallings, owner of Marlo’s Magnificent Learning Center, could face up to 12 months in jail after being convicted Friday of reckless conduct in the death of 2-year-old Jazmin Green, who was left behind in a van, strapped in a car seat, on a sweltering afternoon.
Fallings’ daughter, Quantabia Shantell Hopkins, a teacher at the school, was convicted on two counts of involuntary manslaughter, one count of reckless conduct and one count of contributing to the deprivation of a child. She could get as much as 48 months in jail if her sentences for each of the four misdemeanors run consecutively.
The Clayton jury of eight women and four men reached their decisions after deliberating less than three hours.
The convictions come two and a half years after a daycare volunteer pleaded guilty in juvenile court to involuntary manslaughter and reckless conduct in Jazmin’s death. That volunteer, Miesha Ridley, 16 at the time, received two years probation for overlooking Jazmin in the van that hot afternoon of June 20, 2011.
When Friday’s verdicts were announced, Fallings and Hopkins apparently thought they had been convicted of felonies. The mother put her arms around her daughter while they waited at the defense table for the jury to leave.
Then both women crumpled. Friends carried a limp Hopkins out of the courtroom. Fallings fell to the floor in an aisle and lay there with her eyes open and a blank stare.
Once they were revived and supporters were told the women would not be going to prison on felony convictions, there were shouts of spiritual gratitude from the group.
Still, it was not a win, said one of the defense attorneys.
“We cannot consider this a victory because a child is still dead,” said Andre Johnson, Fallings’ lawyer.
All involved said the trial was emotional.
The prosecutor wept when she asked jurors earlier in the day to convict Fallings and Hopkins of murder, reckless conduct and contributing to the deprivation of a child.
“This baby had been left in this van for three hours,” prosecutor Deah Warren said. “The last place she sat was in the corner of that van. Outside. With no cover. In 90-degree heat. For hours. Forgotten by those who were supposed to take care of her, to protect her, to love her.”
Defense attorneys argued, however, that Jazmin’s death, while tragic, was not a crime.
“When a horrible tragedy happens, we look for answers and there has to be somebody to blame,” Johnson said Friday morning in his closing argument. “But this was an accident.”
Bruce Harvey, Hopkins’ attorney, said in his closing, “We know it was a tragedy and we’re so sorry. But it’s not a crime.”
Jazmin and seven other toddlers went on a field trip to Chuck E. Cheese that afternoon in June.
When they got back to the center, the temperature outdoors was in the mid-90s.
It was much hotter inside the closed van, where Jazmin was left in a car seat.
Ridley, the untrained teenage volunteer, was given the assignment to bring in the children from the third row of the van. Ridley brought in all of them except Jazmin. She apparently overlooked the little girl even when she went back to the van to fetch her purse and water bottle, according to testimony.
“You have eight kids,” Warren said in her closing. “You have more fingers than that. You don’t even have to get to your toes. They had to strap her into that car seat (for the trip back to the center). They certainly had to unstrap her.”
Jazmin was missed when Hopkins went to the toddler’s classroom to give her a card and a picture from the outing. That was when the van was checked again.
Fallings and Hopkins will be sentenced May 2.
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