KALAMAZOO COUNTY, Mich. —
The man charged with child abuse after his son was found dead in his car outside a Kalamazoo area grocery store in August appeared before a judge Wednesday.
This comes after the Kalamazoo County Prosecutor filed charges against Chad Martin, 36, on Tuesday. He faces a felony charge of child abuse - leaving a child in a vehicle unattended resulting in death, which could land him 15 years in prison if convicted.
Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Getting said what happened back in August was an “awful tragedy” and a “terrible thing for everybody involved to have to go through.”
But after conversations with his staff and reviewing the investigation into the case, he believes the charge is appropriate for the situation.
“We want to make sure that it is what it seems to be, and that we're not overlooking something,” Getting said. “And so there was a lot of investigation that went into the cause of death and making sure that things were what they appeared to be on the surface.”
While the investigation was long, he said it was necessary to press the charge.
“We owe it to the people here in Kalamazoo and Vicksburg. We owe it to Mr. Martin. We owe it to the system to make sure that before we make a decision, before we draw any conclusions, we have all of the information that that we need in order to make an informed decision about what the outcome should be,” Getting said. “And sometimes that takes a little bit of time.”
Getting said the months-long investigation was not done to intentionally delay the process.
“Sometimes things move faster, sometimes things move slower, and in this particular instance, we had the luxury of being able to make sure that we got all of the information that we needed upfront, rather than being surprised by something that came up later,” he said. “We owe it to the victim.”
Martin’s criminal defense lawyer Caleb Graves said after the court hearing that the 3-year-old's death haunts Martin.
“There's nothing the criminal justice system can do to him that's, you know, not going to be worse than the way he already feels about what happened. You know, he's been beside himself since this happened,” Graves said.
“He's been upset about this, and he's been heartbroken about this ever since he's known him for a couple months, and it's been the same thing. You know, he just feels terrible.”
Martin turned himself in Wednesday morning to authorities.
He has no previous criminal history and has not been investigated by Child Protective Services, Graves said.
He said throughout the time he’s represented Martin, he has done nothing but cooperate with authorities and wants to make the process “as easy as possible” for all the parties involved.
In court, Graves argued for Martin to get a personal recognizance bond, which would allow him to be with his family, which the judge granted.
“I think coupled with the fact that, you know, he's already retained my office, and he's, you know, willing to turn himself in, that kind of alleviates everybody's concern about somebody taking off or not wanting to take responsibility for what happened,” he said. “I think his main concern, based on my conversations with him, is, you know, he's willing to take responsibility for, you know, what he actually did in this case. So was the hope that he'll be able to return to this family.”
Martin’s wife was in court today to support them. She wants him to continue working and continue supporting them, Graves said.
“The fact that she's in his corner, I think, speaks a lot to Mr. Martin, you know, to what he's going through and what he's willing to do to make this right.”
Graves said he understands that the legislature is doing everything they believe is right to hold people accountable in these situations, but said “I think the individual circumstances are going to have the most to do with you know what kind of punishment there is in this case.”
Getting said this is a relatively new statute. Before when it came to these types of cases, he said they would have to rely on a different type of charge, like manslaughter.
“Here, we simply have to prove that he was responsible for this child, that he left the child in the car, that, as a result, the child died from injuries caused by having been left in a car in August for an entire day.”
Similar to charges that can be filed under Michigan’s new safe storage law, Getting said charges that are targeted towards a specific behavior makes it easier for everybody.
“It makes it easier for a court, makes it easier for a jury, it makes it easier for prosecutors and for the defense to be able to say, look, here's what the law is, here's how the facts apply to that law, and we can draw a conclusion legally about accountability much easier,” he said. “And that's what you know has happened in this specific instance, is we're able to use this statute that applies directly to a situation like this.”
Documents obtained by 13 ON YOUR SIDE Tuesday said the boy remained in the car during Martin’s shift, which lasted from around 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. The windows were rolled up during that time, and through the investigation, it was found temperatures around the car seat could have reached 120 degrees.
Martin will be back in court next month.