Mom whose baby died when left in car due in court this afternoon

Home » News » Local

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Comment

By Register Online staff

Angwin mother charged with involuntary manslaughter, Aug 25, 2007

Judge tosses charge against Angwin mom in baby's death, Oct. 17, 2007

Manslaughter charge back on for Angwin mom, Feb. 13, 2008

1 p.m.A hearing takes place this afternoon in Napa for the Angwin mother whose baby died when she left the infant in the family car for more than six hours.

Haley Wesley is due in court at 3 p.m. on a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the death of her 10-month-old daughter Maddison.

Maddison was found dead, secured in her child safety seat in the back seat of the family’s Honda on May 18, 2007. The car was parked in front of the family’s home on College Avenue in Angwin.

At Wesley’s preliminary hearing last October, Napa County Superior Court Judge Stephen Kroyer ruled the baby’s death was an incredible, horrible mistake and Wesley had no criminal intent in Maddison’s death, tossing out the criminal charges.

On Feb. 13, however, Napa County Superior Court Judge Diane Price overruled Kroyer's decision that insufficient evidence existed to charge Wesley, and Wesley was again charged with involuntary manslaughter.

Wesley, along with her daughter, had left Angwin that morning to visit friends in Napa. Realizing she would be late for her job at Pacific Union College in Angwin, Wesley put Maddison in the back seat of the Honda and headed for work, arriving at PUC around 9 a.m.

Because she was late for work, she worked through her lunch hour and left PUC around 3 p.m., and drove home, police said. After being in the house for a short time, she left — thinking it was time to pick up her daughter at day care — and found the child unresponsive in the back seat.

Wesley took Maddison into the house, started CPR and called 911. Neighbors called Wesley’s husband at work. The baby was taken to St. Helena where she was pronounced dead.

Check back later in the day for a story on the hearing.

7 comment(s)

napaao wrote on Mar 26, 2008 4:14 PM:

" even though there was no criminal intent she should still get the proper punishment, either way she killed her child no matter if it was a mistake or not! im sorry but you can't tell me you don't know that your kid is in the car even if its not a normal car you use. hello! mothers have that sense. "

napaao wrote on Mar 26, 2008 4:19 PM:

" ok that doesnt really make sense, that means she would have had to leave the house at like 5 or 6am to come to napa to hang out with friends, then realizing she would be late for work at 9am??? then she would have only had like 30mins to an hour to hang out with friends...?? i dont quite understand that! don't you think she would remember bringing her kid into her friends house??? DUH, and to top it off, she would definatley realize her child was in the car when she got out. either way DUMB! i don't mean to sound bias but come on now, it just doesnt make sense. "

lousy naive ignorant napan wrote on Mar 26, 2008 5:36 PM:

" My first impression was to prosecute, but what would that accomplish? If this truly was an accident (obviously this needs to be figured out first), then this poor lady is already suffering enough. Why use tax money to put her into an already overcrowded prison system? She's not a threat to society. "

diehard4ever wrote on Mar 26, 2008 6:07 PM:

" SHAME ON HER!!! Why is she even working when she has a ten month old kid??? I know this is like the feminest era, but puh-lease, this isn't right. I wonder what she would think about this if SHE was the one left to die in the back seat of a car!?!?!?!? Think about it. "

livesinangwin wrote on Mar 26, 2008 6:52 PM:

" I know this wonderful young mother and putting her away for this tragedy would be a miscarriage of justice. Even in this society there are still accidents, not everything is a crime. This mother has suffered, she suffers every day. This accident has already had consequences. It is time to stop. "

opiniagirl wrote on Mar 26, 2008 7:08 PM:

" Napaao:

What you are suggesting is that this mother intentionally left her child in the car, intending to kill her.

Wow - pretty bold statement.

This was a horrible trajic accident! Nothing more...nothing less. Nothing that this state could do to this mother would cause her more anguish than the loss of her precious child, and the guilt she must feel.
Why add insult to injury? It's not going to prevent this from happening to another parent. You can't scare people into "remembering" not to forget by making an "example" of this suffering young mother. I'm sure that is not the "justice" that Madison would have wanted for her mommy. "

14obama wrote on Mar 28, 2008 7:34 PM:

" NVR moderator,why do you deny my comments ? Does it give you a sense of power,or what ? "

Join the conversation

*Member ID:
*Password:
Remember login? (requires cookies)
	Forgot Your Password?

Create an account

Comment Guidelines

The goal of the story comments section at NapaValleyRegister.com is to have an open, thought-provoking, civil community forum for all issues.

What gets your comment posted?

• Staying on topic

• Keeping your comment to 300 words or less

• Avoiding name-calling

• Addressing your comments to the message rather than the messenger

What gets your comment deleted?

• Personal attacks

• Derogatory remarks

• Name-calling of any sort

• Going off-topic

• Hate speech

• Racially-insensitive comments

• Implying guilt of a subject in a crime story before there is a court verdict

• Posting e-mail addresses

• Posting comments of a commercial nature

• POSTING WITH ALL CAPITAL LETTERS

• Linking multiple comments together with "to be continued..." to get around the 300 word limit.

The fine print

- Comments are either approved or denied. We do not edit comments.

- You are welcome to modify and resubmit a denied comment.

- Comments may take several hours to be posted.

- Comments posted are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of NapaValleyRegister.com, its employees or its parent company.

- Do you have information on a story? Please go to our virtual newsroom to send us a news tip.

- If you feel a posted comment has violated our guidelines, please contact online@napanews.com or add a comment indicating you have an issue and our moderators will review the comment in question.

Search: