Though it's been a Georgia law for more than two years now, the second-degree murder charge has only been used a handful of times. But it will be considered in the case of 15-month-old Carroll County twins who died after being left in a hot SUV, Coweta Circuit District Attorney Pete Skandalakis said Monday.
“The key there is criminal negligence,” Skandalakis told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “You’re also looking at the intent.”
Asa Martel North, 24, has been charged with two felony counts of involuntary manslaughter and two counts of reckless conduct, both misdemeanors, in the deaths of his daughters, Ariel Roxanne and Alaynah Maryanne North. North was supposed to be caring for the twins Thursday when he instead left them in the backseat of his SUV, according to Carrollton police.
The girls’ mother, Briel Ellis, told Channel 2 Action News she rarely let her daughters out of her sight since they were born prematurely last year. But last week, her sister was seriously injured in a wreck, so she left the girls with North for a few hours to visit her sister at Grady Memorial Hospital.
Investigators believe alcohol was a factor in the deaths, and within hours obtained blood samples from North, Carrollton Police Capt. Chris Dobbs said.
“We know he was drinking that day,” Dobbs said. “He admitted to drinking, also.”
But investigators want to know how much he’d been drinking and whether there were any drugs in his system, Dobbs said. Those results will help investigators determine a degree of negligence, he said. Once police complete the investigation, those findings will be given to the DA. The results for the twins’ autopsies, being conducted by the GBI, were also pending Tuesday afternoon, a Carroll County deputy coroner said.
The punishment for second-degree murder ranges from 10 to 30 years in prison, and there is no requirement for prosecutors to show intent. Republican state Rep. Christian Coomer of Cartersville has said he crafted the statute because of discrepancies in how various law enforcement agencies were charging when children died in hot cars.
In January, a northwest Georgia grandmother was charged with second-degree murder after allegedly leaving her 13-month-old old grandson in the car for several hours with the heat on, causing his death.
An online Go Fund Me page had raised more than $21,000 for Ellis and her family by Tuesday afternoon. But none of the money raised will be needed for funeral costs, thanks to the generosity of Atlanta entertainment mogul Tyler Perry.
After an emotional interview with Ellis aired Monday night on Channel 2, Perry called the station to offer to pay for the funeral for the twins.
“I was with them every day and the one day I left … I just want to tell them I’m sorry,” Ellis said. “They didn’t deserve to die like that or to die, period, but I know they’re in heaven.”
Visitation for the twins will be from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Carrollton Chapel of Willie A. Watkins Funeral Home. The funeral will be Thursday at 1 p.m. at Bethlehem Temple Church of a New Beginning.
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