No indictment in Madison County hot car death

A Madison County grand jury declined to indict the mother of a child left in a hot car in Gluckstadt in May.

Caroline Bryant, 2, was found dead in the vehicle by her mother. Sheriff Randy Tucker said the mother thought she had taken her child to daycare at Little Footprints Learning Center before she went to work. When she went to pick her child up that afternoon, daycare workers told her she hadn't dropped her off.

District Attorney Michael Guest said the Madison County grand jury "met on numerous cases including the death of Caroline Bryant."

"The grand jury, after having heard testimony and prolonged deliberations, declined to bring charges against the mother of the child," he said via text.

Guest was unavailable for extended comment Thursday because he was still in court with a Rankin County grand jury.

The name of the mother in Madison has not been released by The Clarion-Ledger because charges were not brought against her initially, nor was she indicted. Madison County officials have not officially released her name either.

A little over a month ago, a Grenada father who left his infant daughter in a hot car just a week after the Madison incident, was indicted for manslaughter. Joshua Blunt, 25, left his daughter, 8-month-old Shania Caradine, in his vehicle when he went to work May 19. She died at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

Blunt's attorney has called the discrepancy in the charges between the Grenada case and the Madison County case, which were handled by different jurisdictions, "blatant racism."

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SEE ALSO: Mom of infant who died in hot car wants charges dropped

Contact Therese Apel at tapel@gannett.com. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.