Henry Ogene, a 44-year-old Nigerian immigrant, is accused of felony child abuse.
Henry Ogene of Pontiac was arraigned Saturday afternoon on a fatal child abuse charge in the death of his son Odeshi, who was left strapped in the back seat of a car for five hours as the temperature outside reached 77 degrees, according to WDIV
Relatives issued this statement, posted by WXYZ:
The family of Odeshi Ogene would like to thank you all for your prayers and expressions of sympathy and condolences, but we would appreciate the opportunity to privately process this great and painful loss. There’s no pain greater than the pain caused by the loss of a child, and for it to occur so suddenly and under such tragic circumstances makes this grieving process even harder. Again, thank you for your continued prayers.
9 a.m. Saturday:
The death of a 16-month-old boy left in a car on a hot day wasn't careless neglect in the view of authorities.
"He may have had narcotics in his bloodstream," Oakland's sheriff says of the accused father. A Breatalyzer test showed he was intoxicated, the lawman adds.
The Pontiac victim's dad was arrested Friday and will be charged Saturday in 50th District Court with a felony that could bring 15 years in prison. Mike Martindale has details in The Detroit News:
The Oakland County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the death a homicide after performing an autopsy Friday that determined Odeshi Ogene died from hyperthermia.
The sheriff’s office said the boy’s 46-year-old father was in custody Friday and will be charged Saturday with child abuse / leaving a child in a vehicle causing death.
The boy's mother, a registered nurse, told investigators that the father was supposed to watch their child while she was at work Thursday, Martindale reports.
On Thursday, temperatures in Pontiac reached the high 70s, enough to heat the air inside a locked car past 100 degrees within minutes.
The Free Press quotes Oakland Prosecutor Jessica Cooper as saying: “This child was left unattended in an unventilated car for hours.”
Roger Weber of WDIV reports that the boy was strapped in a child safety seat from roughly 1 p.m. until his mother found him around 6 p.m.
"The windshield had actually magnified the sun so that it burned the child's face," said Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard.
Bouchard tells Weber that the father's blood alcohol content was .15 when he was tested Thursday night, approximately three hours after his arrest. "We also believe he may have had narcotics in his bloodstream," the sheriff says.
The father is described as a legal immigrant from Nigeria.
