
An 8-month-old girl from Georgia died in the car while her father was being arrested, according to police.
Davied Japez McCorry Whatley, 20, is now charged with the murder of his underage daughter Nova Grace Whatley-Trejo - because police say he never mentioned leaving his daughter there.
According to the Snellville Police Department, McCorry entered the lobby of the police station shortly after 2:15 p.m. Tuesday to retrieve a firearm that had been confiscated.
As is the procedure, officers conduct a history check to make sure they were not handing out weapons to a convicted criminal; indeed they learned that McCorry had an order for a test violation, related to a kick and running without insurance. So he was arrested and sent to Gwinnett County Jail.
He would be released on bail a few hours later. What police say he did not know was that his little girl had been left out in his car the entire time.
"He made no statement about the fact that his daughter was left in the car, two buildings away from the Snellville Police Department," Detective Jeff Manely told a news conference. He did not state that the child was present. "
"We have him on video from the time he entered the lobby until we took him to the Gwinnett County Detention Center and released him to the sheriff's deputies there. "He was on video all the time," he repeated. "He never made a statement that the child was in the car."
Police learned of the death only after the little girl's grandmother appeared with him in the emergency room at Piedmont Eastside at 22:00. The child was pronounced dead.
The grandmother told hospital staff that the baby had been left in her father's car after he was arrested for a traffic problem, but police say this is not true.
Investigators say Whatley at one point informed the grandmother that his daughter was in the car. When police were notified of the death, they said they found Whatley's car parked near bins in Snellville County Hall.
Following the connection to the initial charge Tuesday night, Whatley was arrested again Wednesday morning, charged with second-degree murder. "I'm absolutely amazed that someone could leave an 8-month-old baby in the car, park away from our building and walk here knowing the baby was in the car," Detective Manely told reporters.