A Florida father was taken into custody this week, facing charges of manslaughter and child neglect after he left his 18-month-old son inside his car to get a haircut and have drinks at a bar.
The young child tragically passed away after being left unattended in the vehicle for several hours on June 6, with his body reaching a temperature of 111 degrees, as reported by Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood, who announced the arrest of 33-year-old Scott Allen Gardner.
Chitwood noted that Gardner visited a salon for a haircut before heading to Hanky Panky’s Lounge in Ormond Beach. Upon returning to his car, he discovered his son, Sebastian, had died. Gardner didn’t contact 911 immediately but instead drove to his mother’s house to seek assistance.
Investigators say the boy had been dead for at least an hour when help arrived.
Deputies say Gardner lowered the windows in the truck and left a small portable fan on, but its air did not reach the child.
After the child’s death, Gardner and his mother went back to Hanky Panky’s Lounge for more drinks, where they stayed until almost midnight.
“This father is a human piece of garbage, and he’s a lying sack of s***,” said Chitwood. ” … My hope for him is every night that he closes his eyes and every morning when he opens his eyes, his son Sebastian sits there and says, ‘Dad, why did you do this to me?’ There is no reason for this little boy to be dead.”
Investigators determined that Gardner arrived to get his haircut at 11:30 a.m., then went to the lounge across the street a half hour later, Chitwood said. In the course of his afternoon of drinks, someone hit the bartender’s car outside, and Gardner went out to check on that car but did not check on his son. He left the bar at about 2:40 p.m. and drove home.
Emergency responders were unable to perform CPR on the baby because he was already in rigor mortis, the sheriff said.
“I don’t think there’s a penalty on this earth that fits this crime,” he said.
Deputies painstakingly reviewed surveillance video and interviewed witnesses before arresting Gardner on Thursday at his mother’s home. He appeared before a judge on Friday and was ordered held without bond, WESH reported.
The Ormond Beach Police officer who initially responded to the emergency call made the arrest on Thursday.
