A Georgia man was charged with murder after police said he left his 8-month-old daughter in a hot car while inside a city police station.
Davied Whatley, 20, was charged Wednesday with second-degree murder, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said in a press release.
The baby girl’s grandmother fiercely pushed back against the police narrative of events, Atlanta ABC affiliate WSB reported.
Cops said Whatley arrived at Snellville City Hall, about 20 miles east of Atlanta, around 2 p.m. Tuesday. He was there to pick up a gun that had been seized by police in a previous case, according to law enforcement.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tronc/3TUB234Z3FBQTDYP6XFBX7JA7E.png)
Officers ran a background check on Whatley before giving him the gun back and found he had an outstanding misdemeanor warrant, the GBI said. He was arrested and taken to Gwinnett County jail.
Police claimed that during the entire processing operation, Whatley never mentioned that 8-month-old Nova Grace Whatley-Trejo was sitting in his car on the 86-degree day.
“He told them. He loved his daughter,” the girl’s grandmother, Leticia Padilla, told WSB. “All they had to do was listen. They thought he was lying.”
The cops claimed that Whatley could be seen on video during the entire process and he never once mentioned his daughter.
Whatley eventually called a friend, who alerted Padilla. She found Nova in the car, seven hours after Whatley entered the police station. Padilla took Nova to a nearby hospital, where the baby girl was pronounced dead.
Briefly, Whatley was released from prison Tuesday night after posting bail on the misdemeanor. He was arrested again Wednesday morning and charged with Nova’s murder.
With News Wire Services
