Baby found dead in day-care-center van
MILWAUKEE (AP) — A 4-month-old boy was found dead in a day-care center's van Thursday, and its driver was arrested, Milwaukee police said.
The baby may have been left in the Bumble Bee Day Care Center van for about four hours before he was found Thursday afternoon, police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz said.
How the baby died was not immediately known; the temperature in the area was in the 50s at the time.

Schwartz says the van's 44-year-old driver was arrested on a tentative felony charge of leaving a child in a child-care vehicle unattended. His name was not immediately released.
The child's grandmother, Remona Williams, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the victim is Jalen Knox-Perkins, and he had been attending Bumble Bee for about a month.

 
Van driver charged in infant’s death

The Associated Press
MILWAUKEE (AP) — A man who had just started his job as a day care driver was charged Tuesday in the death of a 4-month-old boy who he left in a hot van.

Precious Fitzgerald Marney, 44, was charged with leaving a child in a child care vehicle unattended, resulting in death.

The criminal complaint said Marney’s last pickup was Jalen Knox-Perkins at around 7:30 a.m. Thursday. Marney told police he then went to Bumble Bee Learning Center and mistakenly left the child inside the van.

He and another driver discovered the boy at about 1:50 p.m., when they were going to start the afternoon pickup. The van’s windows were rolled up.

The complaint said Marney cried and was distraught upon discovering the boy.

“The defendant said it was a horrible mistake and said he thought he brought the child into the day care but knew he did not,” the complaint said. He had brought the boy in each of the three days before and doesn’t know why he forgot on that Thursday, the complaint said.

Marney had just started a week before at the day care and the baby had only been going to the day care since mid-March, according to the complaint. The baby’s father, Marcus Perkins, said nothing seemed out of the ordinary when the driver picked up the boy.

The boy died of hyperthermia due to heat exposure, according to the autopsy. He had a blanket and jacket over him. The temperature was in the 50s Thursday. Authorities later closed the van for a half hour and the temperature hit 103 degrees.

No lawyer was listed for Marney in online court records. No home number could be found. He was jailed Tuesday on $25,000 bail.

Janette Fennell, president and founder of the national group KidsandCars.org, said the death is the first she knew of when the temperature outside the vehicle was under 60 degrees. She said her records show this is a new low temperature, but the child being bundled makes a big difference.

Fennell said seven children left in hot vehicles have died in Wisconsin since 1991. In February, a 48-year-old woman also was charged with leaving a child unattended in a child care vehicle resulting in death. She allegedly left a 4-month-old in a closed vehicle in 80-degree weather in July.

Fennell said her group is working with U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., on federal legislation requiring vehicle companies to install seat-belt sensors for all seating positions.

“We need to be so much more diligent that children are never left alone in vehicles,” she said.

Wisconsin Rep. Tamara Grigsby and state Sen. Spencer Coggs, both Democrats, are proposing requiring day car vehicles to have safety alarms that require the driver go to the back of the vehicle to disarm the device when the engine is turned off.

The charge is a felony. If convicted, Marney could face up to 10 years in prison and a $25,000 fine.