A Hammond man is charged with second-degree murder after his 21-month-old daughter died in a hot vehicle in Madisonville over the weekend.
St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Lt. Suzanne Carboni says Joseph Boatman, 35, picked up his daughter from work early Sunday morning.
“He brought the daughter out to the car and strapped her in a car seat,” says Lt. Carboni. “And for an unknown reason, he went back into the residence. Never went back out to the vehicle until after a family member located the toddler inside the car.”
Carboni says the girl was buckled into that car seat for more than nine hours.
“The child was buckled in the car seat as best as they could tell around 2:30 in the morning on Sunday,” Carboni says. “Then a family member located her there around noon.”
By the time the family member found the toddler, the temperature outside had soared.
“The heat index was in excess of 100 degrees,” says Carboni. “The temperature was in the 90s.”
Carboni says alcohol likely played a role in Boatman’s lack of sound judgment.
“Detectives through their investigation had learned that Boatman, prior to going to pick up his daughter, had consumed
multiple alcoholic beverages,” Carboni says.
Boatman was booked into the St. Tammany Parish Correctional Center.
