Tot’s death accidental, lawyer for mother says

The thermometer hit about 100 degrees outside the day the girl died.

BATAVIA, Ohio (AP) — A school administrator driving to work became distracted after picking up doughnuts for a faculty meeting and forgot about her sleeping 2-year-old daughter, who was left behind in a sweltering car for the day and died of heat-related causes, the mother’s lawyer said.

Brenda Nesselroad-Slaby, 40, is distraught over her child’s death, and it would be another tragedy if prosecutors were to charge her with a serious crime, said defense lawyer attorney R. Scott Croswell III.

“There is not the first hint that she intended to leave the child in that automobile,” Croswell said.

Cecilia Slaby was in her mother’s sport utility vehicle, strapped into a car seat in the rear, for about eight hours Aug. 23 while her mother was working at the school. A teacher who parked next to the vehicle noticed the girl inside. Temperatures outside reached about 100 degrees.

Clermont County Prosecutor Don White has said he believes it was an accident but must consider whether the case warrants a charge of child endangering. A conviction for felony child endangering carries a possible sentence of up to eight years in prison and a fine of up to $15,000.

What happened

Nesselroad-Slaby, who is on paid leave from her job as assistant principal at Glen Este Middle School, about 20 miles east of Cincinnati, usually dropped her daughter off with a baby sitter around 7 a.m., Croswell said.

But that morning, Nesselroad-Slaby was a little ahead of schedule, making her 30 minutes early for the baby sitter.

She “turned around and went to pick up the doughnuts and focused on her school projects and became distracted and forgot she had not yet dropped the child off,” Croswell said.

A receipt from the Busken Bakery, a mile from the school, shows Nesselroad-Slaby paid $59.22 for eight dozen doughnuts at 6:54 a.m., authorities said.

Once at the school, Nesselroad-Slaby removed the doughnuts from the back of the vehicle’s hatch and didn’t notice her daughter, who had been sleeping since they left home, Croswell said.

The little girl was buried in an undisclosed location Tuesday.