Police Find Newborn And 3-Year-Old Boy In Hot Car While Nanny Was Inside Tanning Salon
Police embarked on a disturbing find when they noticed a 3-year-old boy and newborn locked in a hot car while their nanny was inside a tanning salon. The incident happened in Portland, Oregon on May 15, when 23-year-old Kristin Marie Jones left the boy and 2-month-old girl inside her car so she could go into Sunblaze Tanning Salon, KOIN reports. Temperatures were upwards of 90-degrees in the afternoon.
Jones pleaded not guilty before a grand jury on Friday in Multnomah County Circuit Court. She’s charged with two counts each of “first-degree criminal mistreatment, recklessly endangering another, first-degree child neglect and one count of driving while suspended,” KOIN reports.
When Portland Officer Rian Hamby responded to a call checking on the welfare of two children, a witness pointed him to the vehicle where they were in the hot car. The kids were in a Dodge Caravan. Officer Hamby says they were sweating and screaming. Court documents reveal that he immediately opened the door to get them out. While he was removing the boy from the car, the nanny walked out of the tanning salon. She took the other child out of the car and all of them headed back inside the tanning salon.
Officer Hamby states in his report that the 3-year-old boy was “soaked in sweat.” Court documents further reveal that “the officer felt the heat radiating from (the child) through his bullet proof vest.”
None of the windows were cracked open when the kids were left in the car while the nanny allegedly went tanning. She initially told police that she left the two children in the car with their mother, but she did admit she was their nanny. Police learned from a Department of Human Services worker that the mother was working all day.
Jones eventually fessed up and said she left the kids in the vehicle, but lied because she panicked. The ex-nanny’s next court date is August 15.
Pix11 reports that Kristin Marie Jones has previous convictions of driving while suspended in 2012 and 2013, plus two separate DUII convictions in 2012, and a 2009 conviction for second-degree theft. The former nanny has been sent to jail for failing to meet conditions put on her releases.
More reports of kids and dogs in hot cars are in the headlines now that summer has kicked in. Last week a man rescued a dog he saw suffering inside a car, and a terrible case about a toddler who died in a hot car is another article The Inquisitr has reported on.
[Image via KOIN.com]
