Share
Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
FORT WORTH — A Tarrant County grand jury returned an indictment of felony murder against an Arlington mother whose 17-month-old son died in a hot vehicle while she was at work.
Keashia Dyon Matthews, 37, remains free on a $13,000 bond, according to authorities. Matthews faced a second-degree felony charge of abandoning a child causing imminent danger prior to the grand jury decision on Friday.Matthews could face a term of up to life in prison if convicted on the murder charge, said Kimberly D'avignon, assistant district attorney."After being presented all the facts, the grand jury decided to return an indictment of murder," D'avignon said.The Tarrant County medical examiner's office ruled that Darrell Singleton III's death on Sept. 3 was a homicide as a result of being "left unattended in a motor vehicle during warm weather." His body temperature was 107 degrees when he arrived at an Arlington hospital on a day that reached 96 degrees.With this indictment, Matthews becomes the second person in Tarrant County in the past decade to be indicted on a serious charge for leaving a child in a hot car.The only other known case of someone being indicted was a father who left his 3-year-old daughter inside a van all day as he worked in Southlake. He received 36 months' probation after pleading guilty to abandoning a child.He told police that he forgot to drop her off at day care. In other cases, the defendant was either no billed or not charged at all.--Nathaniel Jones and Mitch Mitchell, with material from Star-Telegram archives
@Nyx.CommentBody@