Landon Parrott
A father is accused of intentionally putting his 1-year-old son in a car during a summer day. External temperature was 87 degree Fahrenheit but a police spokesman estimated the victim, reportedly identified as 14-month-old Kyler Parrott, was exposed to even more intense heat while shut in the vehicle.
“We estimate that would’ve made the interior of the car about 130 degrees and this child was in there strapped into a car seat with no fluids, no air conditioning, nothing,” Det. Capt. Ty Norris of the New Philadelphia Police Department told WJW. “Heartbreaking. It’s heartbreaking to see this unfold before your eyes.”
Now the father Landon Scott Parrott, 19, is locked up at the Tuscarawas County Jail on a $250,000 bond for murder, two counts of endangering children, and involuntary manslaughter.
Police said they learned about this incident Thursday afternoon. The Cleveland Clinic Union Hospital told them about defendant Parrott taking the unresponsive child to the emergency room.
“During the initial investigation the Detectives found inconsistent information being given by the father,” cops said. “As the investigation continued and evidence was collected, the father was confronted with the new information and confessed to detectives what had happened to his son.”
“Dad’s version essentially was that he found the child after he exited the restroom and the child was unconscious,” Norris told WJW.
But he said that investigators confronted defendant Parrott with surveillance footage from across the street on Ashwood Lane. This video allegedly showed Parrott putting the child alone in the car. Mom was at work. police said.
Landon Parrott allegedly said he knew about the dangers of hot cars and saw news reports about children dying.
Nonetheless, he allegedly left the child in the vehicle for approximately five hours.
“During the interview it appears that this was not a matter of forgetting the child but was a deliberate act so as the child would not be a disturbance while in the house,” police said.
Norris reportedly asked for prayers on behalf of the mother and family.
“This is about this poor child and this poor mother who was just trying to work and pay bills and finding justice for both of them,” he said.
[Booking photo via the Tuscarawas County Jail]