When the Peters Township, Pennsylvania father of an infant who was found dead in a hot car in June turned himself in at Pittsburgh Municipal Court on Thursday morning, he did not expect he’d be kept and held at the Allegheny County Jail.
That detention will be challenged by his defense attorney in a court hearing Friday morning.
The 3-month-old baby was pronounced dead at the scene near the 300 block of Fort Couch Road in Upper St. Clair on June 16.
Khang Nguyen is charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of his baby boy. His attorney says the father has been cooperating with authorities and is grieving over the death, which resulted from Nguyen forgetting his baby was in his minivan for several hours on a hot June day.
Defense attorney William Difenderfer is critical of District Judge Jim Motznik’s decision to deny bond, which is keeping his client in jail.
“(Nguyen’s) guilt is overwhelming, and he’s distraught. He’s devastated. And this, adding criminal charges to this, and just hearing that a magistrate denied his bond when pretrial services recommended that he be released on his own recognizance, I’m dealing with another outrageous thing,” Difenderfer told Pittsburgh’s Action News 4. “Now this guy, this helpless father who’s going through this depression is going to be in this damn county jail. And he might be in there over the weekend and whatever until we can hurry up and get it reviewed. It is unconscionable what this magistrate did to me. And I know him and I’m just beside myself.”
Difenderfer also questions the decision to file criminal charges in a case he argues was ruled an accident by the medical examiner.
The criminal complaint filed by Allegheny County Police says Nguyen left his baby in the heat for several hours and didn’t retrieve him from the van until he got to his own parent’s Upper St. Clair home.
The infant, Kayden Nguyen, died from the heat after being left in his father’s vehicle on June 16.
Nguyen said he’d forgotten he left the baby in the minivan in Upper St. Clair from before 11 that morning until nearly 4:30 that afternoon as temperatures reached into the 90s.
“There’s an expert to testify that adding criminal charges to these types of cases, it just is so destructive to the family. Because the family is all trying to support each other. They’re going through the loss of a child, and they’re trying to support him, so he can keep it together, which is very difficult,” Difenderfer said. “As you know, the medical examiner ruled it as accidental and clearly it was accidental. This guy loves his children and is absolutely distraught over the unfortunate mental lapse that happened.”
Difenderfer said he has been granted a hearing at 10 a.m. Friday before Common Pleas Judge Edward Borkowski on his motion to have his client released from jail. As for now, Nguyen faces a hearing on the charges Aug. 19.
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