Police: Dad charged with murder had 5 drinks, then left toddler in car for 16 hours

A Baltimore man who left his 2-year-old daughter in a hot car for 16 hours after he had five drinks has been charged with her murder, police said.

Baltimore police said they were called at 5:15 p.m. on Monday for a report of an unconscious child inside a vehicle. Paramedics arrived and took the girl — Leasia Carter — to a hospital, where she was later pronounced dead.

A preliminary investigation found that the girl had been inside the vehicle unattended for 16 hours, according to police. Police said that the temperature outside reached 89 degrees while she was in the vehicle. She suffered second-degree burns in the car.

Her father, Wilbert Carter, 31, is charged with murder and child abuse. He is being held at the city jail.

Police said in a charging document that Carter told them he had consumed five alcoholic drinks during the day on Sunday. Around midnight, he said, a friend drove his car to Brendan Avenue.

He said he has no memory of what happened after that. His mother and aunt told him they saw him come home at about 7 a.m. When he woke up at about 4 p.m. on Monday, he asked them where his daughter was, he told police.

They told him that they had assumed the girl was with Carter's sister.

A cousin then called to tell him that his car was still on Brendan Avenue. He went there, and found his daughter still buckled into her car seat.

Police said that Carter has a history of consuming so much alcohol that he passes out.

Authorities throughout the area sent out messages on social media saying it is never okay, especially in the summer heat, to leave elderly people, pets or children unattended or in vehicles.

Heatstroke is among the leading causes of vehicle-related deaths that are not considered crashes among kids under 14, according to experts.

In 2014, 31 children died from heatstroke after being left unattended in cars, according to data from the Department of Meteorology and Climate Science at San Jose State University.

Research at San Jose found that more than half of about 630 children who died from heatstroke in a car over a 17-year period had been forgotten by a caregiver.

Seventeen percent died because a caregiver had intentionally left the child in the vehicle. And about 30 percent of the deaths were the result of a child playing in an unattended vehicle.