No Murder Charge Against Mom In Boy's Death In Hot Van, Court Rules
SHELBY TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WWJ/AP) - The Macomb County prosecutor has struck out in trying to reinstate a murder charge against a woman in the death of her 2-year-old son in a hot minivan.
The state appeals court won't upset a decision that dismissed a second-degree murder charge against Audrionna Rhoades of Shelby Township.
The court says there's evidence that she, then 21 years old, left the toddler in the van with the windows rolled up — but there's no evidence of malice. The 3-0 decision was released Friday.
James Nelson died after being strapped in the van for about nine hours — at the Dequindre Estates Mobile Home Park, near Hamlin and Dequindre roads — in early September, 2013. Rhoades took a different vehicle to work, and there apparently was confusion over who was supposed to watch the child.
An autopsy listed hyperthermia, or heat stroke, as contributing to the boy's death. Temperatures that day were in the 70s.
In February, Rhoades pleaded no contest to child abuse, the same day that Macomb County Judge Jennifer Faunce dismissed the murder charge.
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