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Inset: Chad Martin (Kalamazoo County Jail). Background: The grocery store where Martin found his son deceased in the backseat of the car (Google Maps).
A Michigan man who accidentally left his 3-year-old son to die inside of a hot car for several hours last summer may, in the end, avoid significant jail time altogether, a judge ruled this week.
In January, Chad Martin, 36, pleaded guilty to one count of leaving a child in a vehicle causing death.
On Thursday, the judge overseeing the case sentenced Martin to spend nine months in the Kalamazoo County Jail — with two favorable conditions. First, the sentence is delayed to start until February 2026. Second, the judge also scheduled a conference for December of this year that could lead to the sentence being jettisoned entirely.
Regardless of his time behind bars, however, the defendant was sentenced to three years of probation that began this week.
The incident occurred on Aug. 16, 2023, when Martin left home with his two children in tow. The defendant dropped his daughter off at her day care, but forgot about his son, he would later tell investigators. Instead, Martin drove straight to work where he stayed from roughly 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. before getting back in the car to go grocery shopping.
The boy was discovered, lifeless, outside of a Family Fare supermarket in Vicksburg — a small village located just a few miles south of Kalamazoo — when his father arrived at the store. In sum, the boy was strapped into his car seat in the back for about nine hours.
The outside temperature peaked at 84 degrees that day in western Michigan, but the inside temperature of the vehicle was likely closer to 120 degrees because of the rolled-up windows, police said.
“The day that happened was the worst day of my life,” Martin said during the sentencing hearing, according to a courtroom report by Kalamazoo-based CBS affiliate WWMT. “I deserve whatever punishment I get.”
The Wolverine State, for its part, did not have an issue with the relatively lenient sentencing meted out to the father in this case.
“The Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Office conducted a very thorough investigation so that we could feel confident in saying that this truly was an accident,” Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Getting told Grand Rapids-based ABC affiliate WZZM. “And I think it’s also important that we recognize that the child’s mother was supportive of this outcome, that the defendant not be sentenced to prison because of this. And I think that those are important distinguishing factors.”
The father explained that his daughter, who is a bit older, walks herself into her own day care while the boy would need to be carried in, according to court documents obtained by WZZM. Martin also said he “never checks the backseat when he gets to work” and that the children “always sleep in the vehicle en route to daycare.”
“I guess I went straight to work,” Martin told investigators.
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The boy’s mother also spoke at the sentencing hearing — explaining the turmoil caused by a loss she knows was accidental but avoidable and admitting that she struggled with what Martin’s sentence should be.
“You will never know the true depth of the pain you caused,” Samantha Brown haltingly said through tears, according to WWMT. “There is no justice for my son or daughter or for me.”
