Tuscaloosa County Dad Charged With Manslaughter After Infant Dies in Hot Car

A young Tuscaloosa County father has been charged with manslaughter after his infant child died from being left in a hot car on Wednesday afternoon. The 30-year-old Brookwood man was reportedly drinking throughout the day.

Captain Jack Kennedy, the commander of the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit, said county sheriff’s deputies with paramedic training, Brookwood Fire first responders, and the Northstar Ambulance Service responded to Stone Ridge Court inside Brookwood, where a family reported an infant had been found dead in a vehicle.

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Kennedy said a one-year-old baby had been left strapped inside a car seat in a vehicle on Wednesday afternoon, even as temperatures climbed to above 90 degrees.

“It was determined that the child had been in the sole care of its father all day,” Kennedy said. “The father admitted to drinking at different times throughout the day and leaving the residence at one time to purchase more alcohol. The father reported that he believed that the child had been sleeping in its crib and must have accidentally been left behind in the vehicle.”

Kennedy said there is enough evidence to charge 30-year-old Logan Keith Chewning with manslaughter.

The Brookwood father was placed in the Tuscaloosa County Jail, where he is being held with no bond under Aniah’s law.

It is the third criminal homicide the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit has investigated this week.

For updates and more exclusive coverage of crime and courts in West Alabama, stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread.