KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – An Athens man whose three year old son died after being left in the backseat of a car for over eight hours received probation and a delayed jail sentence.
Chad Martin was sentenced Thursday to nine months in jail and three years of probation in Kalamazoo County Circuit Court.
According to the Kalamazoo County Prosecutor’s Office, the jail sentence was delayed until a status conference in December when there will be a check on Martin’s progress on probation, at which point the judge will decide if he will actually serve the jail time.
The toddler was discovered dead in Martin’s SUV on the afternoon August 13, 2024 at the Family Fare in Vicksburg. The death was believed to have been the result of prolonged heat exhaustion, with the temperature that day higher than 80 degrees.
Police say Martin arrived at his job at a plant in Brady Township, just outside of the Vicksburg limits, around 6:40 a.m. He left around 3:00 p.m. and then stopped by the Family Fare. He was inside for a few minutes and when he came out, he realized his son was still in the car, buckled into in a rear-facing car seat in the driver’s side back seat. The boy was dead by then.
Martin was charged in November with leaving a child in a vehicle causing death and pleaded guilty in January.
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