Harris County Sheriff’s Office investigators say Gbemisola Akayinode left the child unattended in the vehicle for hours in July while working at a Galena Park plant.
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — Court documents reveal new details about the Houston-area woman charged with murder after her child died in a hot car over the summer.
Gbemisola G. Akayinode, 36, was arrested on Friday, October 17, and charged with felony murder in the July 1 death of her 9-year-old daughter. The medical examiner’s office ruled Oluwasikemi Akayinode’s death a homicide due to hyperthermia or heat exhaustion. Court documents said the girl’s body temperature was 108 degrees.
Akayinode’s bond was originally set at $1 million but a judge reduced it to $500,000 on Monday.
Harris County investigators said Akayinode admitted that she left the child unattended in her vehicle for hours while she worked at a Galena Park plant. She claimed she gave her a bottle of water, ice cubes, a muffin and a rechargeable fan, and cracked the back windows.
According to court documents, Akayinode never checked on her daughter while working her shift. When she returned to the car around 2 p.m., she thought the girl was pretending to be asleep. She shook her before realizing her daughter had turned blue and was unresponsive. The victim was given CPR and pronounced dead at the hospital.
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The high was in the upper 90s that day and according to court documents, it was 97.4 degrees inside the vehicle.
Court documents say Akayinode blamed the girl’s death on prescription medicine given for ADHD, but also admitted that she gave the victim melatonin that morning and the night before.
The mother told investigators that she couldn’t afford daycare until her next paycheck, so she also took the girl to work with her the previous day, but checked on her during her lunch hour, court documents say. Akayinode’s supervisor said he’d been giving her money to help make ends meet.
According to court documents, a witness told investigators that she asked Akayinode why the girl wasn’t in daycare since her boss had paid for it, and she said, “I’m sorry, I know what I did.”
Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said a window shade was in the front window of the car, which would have made it hard for people in the parking lot to see the child inside.
Tips to prevent hot car deaths
Doctors say leaving a child in a hot car can become dangerous in a matter of minutes.
“Once you start getting to a body core temperature higher than 102, 104, or higher, that can cause significant damage to the brain, organs,” said Dr. Anthony Arredondo of Texas Children’s Hospital. “So it’s hard to say what time frame, the longer they are in there, the worse it is.”
If you see a child or pet left inside a vehicle alone, you are encouraged to call 911 immediately.
Car temperatures can climb by 19 degrees in just 10 minutes.
According to the National Safety Council, 38 kids die every year after being left in hot cars.
Many deaths can be prevented by teaching your kids these four things:
- How to unbuckle their car seat.
- How to honk the horn.
- How to turn on flashers or hazard lights.
- How to unlock the front doors if the child lock is on the back doors.
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