Mom cleared of felony after leaving child, 4, alone in van

CHESAPEAKE

A 21-year-old Suffolk woman was cleared Friday of gross, reckless care of her 4-year-old son, who was left in a van during a cold night last year.

Chestina Elliott, mother of three, said she did not realize her son was in the van when she parked at Frank's Trucking Center in the 4700 block of W. Military Highway in Chesapeake and went inside to work her waitress job.

A security guard discovered the child without shoes or coat alone inside the unlocked van.

The child had been crying and screaming and was found shaking and with a runny nose. Police, who arrived shortly before 2 a.m. Nov. 17, said they wrapped the child in a blanket and placed him in a heated cruiser.

Circuit Judge V. Thomas Forehand, after a bench trial, found Elliott not guilty of the felony, which carries a sentence of up to five years. Forehand did describe the mother as negligent and warned her to take better care.

The law spells out that any parent of a child under 18 shall be guilty of the felony if a "willful act or omission in the care of such child was so gross, wanton and culpable as to show a reckless disregard for human life."

Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Diallo Morris produced witnesses to show that Elliott had checked in to work at the truck stop at 10:22 p.m. A customer noticed the child in the van during the early morning hours of the next day and notified the security guard.

Senior Assistant Public Defender Amina Matheny argued that her client had no idea the child was in the van. The boy had a habit of crawling under the seats and falling asleep, the mother said.

Elliott testified that she was under the impression that her son had been removed from the van earlier that day and placed in the care of a family member.

"My brother was supposed to take my baby in the house," she testified.

Police said the temperature that night was in the mid-30s.

The mother's other children, a 7-month-old infant and a 2-year-old, were in the care of family that night.

Elliott had asked to plead guilty.

The decision was against the advice of her attorney, who asked to withdraw from the case because she was uncomfortable settling on a plea in a case she believed could be defended.

The trial proceeded after Forehand rejected Elliott's guilty plea.

John Hopkins, (757) 222-5221, john.hopkins@pilotonline.com