Man Whose Child Died in Car Gets 5 Years Probation

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Posted: 6:33 PM Sep 2, 2010 Man Whose Child Died in Car Gets 5 Years Probation A Fort Myers man whose 18-month-old daughter died after he accidentally left her in his car has been sentenced to five years probation. Reporter: AP

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Fort Myers, FL (AP) - A Fort Myers man whose 18-month-old
daughter died after he accidentally left her in his car has been
sentenced to five years probation.
Prosecutors said Reginald McKinnon pleaded guilty on Thursday to
leaving his child unattended in a car. A judge also ordered him to
serve 20 community service hours talking to parenting classes about
what happened.
Police said McKinnon picked up his daughter Payton at daycare on
the morning of March 8, 2009, took her to a doctor's appointment
and then drove to his job at a telecommunications company at about
11 a.m.
He didn't know he'd left her in the back seat of his Ford Explorer until he came out of work and found her at about 3 p.m.

Latest Comments

Posted by: Michelle Location: Georgia on Sep 3, 2010 at 11:52 AM

What a horrible, horrible tragedy! My heart goes out to this poor man and his family and the guilt he will live with for the rest of his life. He didn't leave his child in the car while he was at a bar or getting stoned, he was at work with a million things on his mind and forgot the one thing that mattered most, probably because he had deviated from his routine that he does about 250 days a year! We are all guilty of that at one time or another but thankfully most of us don't have this outcome.

Posted by: MM Location: Fort Myers Fl on Sep 3, 2010 at 10:10 AM

Hey Rebecca...If anyone is in need of a brain transplant, it's you...I have had the pleasure of working with this man for a number of years now...You will never see a more devoted father and family man...His children are his life...This is a tragedy...Plain and simple...If you don't know the facts, better to keep your trap shut than to announce your ignorance to the readers...

Posted by: Georgia Boy Location: Cairo on Sep 3, 2010 at 06:27 AM

I have a question. How many children have died because parents or a caregiver forgot they were in the car and left them there? When our boys were growing up the only car seats were those that lifted them so they could see, and when they were little that was put between my wife and I in the front seat. That way she could get to them and see if they needed anything. As they grew older they sat in the front seat if only my wife or I had them. Otherwise they sat in the back seat with no car seats. They survived that experience and are grown men with children of their own, and we had some great times of conversation with them on the road. My point? While putting children in car seats in the back seat is technically safer, it also isolates them from parents who sometimes forget they have them. In the front seat they were never forgotten, as they were always in full view. Perhaps we need to reconsider where we put car seats and their design.

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