A year and a day after Justin Ross Harris was found guilty of intentionally killing his son by his leaving him inside a hot car to die, a South Fulton mother finds herself facing similar charges and the possibility of life in prison.
As with Harris, surveillance video figured heavily in the decision to charge Lillian Stone with malice murder. For Stone, whose three-year-old son Melvin died two weeks ago after being left strapped in his car seat for more than seven hours on Halloween, what was not seen in the footage proved damning.
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Melvin Smith was the 43rd child in the U.S., and the fourth in Georgia, to die this year due to heatstroke from being left inside a vehicle, according to the advocacy group KidsAndCars.org. His mother is the only one in the country to be charged with malice murder.
Ed Adams, Stone’s attorney, hasn’t reviewed the surveillance tape but said prosecutors have failed to prove his client intended to kill her son.
“It’s definitely an accident,” he said.
Lillian Stone told Det. Jamie Gore she left Melvin inside the car around 12:20 p.m., but video from a camera mounted in Stone’s home shows the child had been inside the vehicle since a little after 8 a.m.
“She wasn’t counting on, or she didn’t know, there was surveillance video,” said prosecutor Michael Sprinkel. “With the inconsistencies in her statement, it does not appear this was simply an accident.”
That morning, according to Gore, Stone dropped her other son and nephew off at school before 8 a.m. She decided not to take Melvin to daycare because “she had some free time that day and wanted to spend some time with him,” Gore said.
Stone said she and Melvin returned home and went to bed. Then, around noon, she said she took her son to the store but returned home after he fell asleep. But Gore testified security cameras never showed Stone leaving the home a second time.
Melvin, meanwhile, never left his car seat, the detective said. At 8:10 a.m., when Stone is seen getting out of her Chevy Malibu in the driveway of her home, Melvin doesn’t accompany her. Stone hesitates, “looks back in the car, then she goes in the house,” where she stays until 3:20 p.m., Gore said.
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She had an unexpected visitor nearly three hours earlier. Stone’s sister, Vankeisha Stone, came by at their mother’s request after she was unable to reach Lillian by phone. Vankeisha Stone had no idea Melvin was still in the vehicle; Gore testified the security footage showed the preschooler was “moving around in the car, trying to take the seat belt off.”
Video from inside the house showed Lillian Stone moving from room to room throughout the day, though Melvin is never seen, Gore said. Police also found an empty bottle of cough syrup on Stone’s bed, along with empty bottle of Oxycontin prescribed to Melvin’s father. The potential significance of those findings was not discussed in court on Wednesday.
Gore testified that Lillian Stone and Melvin’s father, Sidarius Smith, had been arguing the night before, but did not elaborate on whether that fight had anything to do with their child’s death.
“I think she was frantic,” Smith’s sister, Alethea Smith, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Family members filled three rows of the courtroom in support of Stone. “I think she actually did forget,” Althea Smith said.
As was the case with Ross Harris, those who spent time around Stone and her sons say she was a loving, devoted parent.
“Her children loved her,” testified Dashia Ellison, who taught Melvin at Elite Academy in College Park. “She would kiss her child a thousand times before walking out the door.”
Gore said exposure to heat caused Melvin’s death. Even though the high temperature topped out at 72 degrees that day, studies have shown that the temperature inside a car can soar more than 40 degrees higher in less than an hour.
Lillian Stone discovered her son’s body around 3:20 p.m. Around that time a passerby stopped and called 911. Lillian Stone took her son inside the house where, inexplicably, she changed his clothes, Gore said.
At the time Melvin was still breathing but unresponsive. He died two days later.
It is possible Stone could get out of jail as early as Thursday, according to her attorney. She was granted $75,000 bond with the condition she cannot have any contact with children under the age of 15, including her 5-year-old son.
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