CLINTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. – A Macomb County mother has been sentenced to probation after her 5-year-old son wandered outside in the middle of the night and died due to the freezing cold conditions, officials said.
Child found in Clinton Township park
Derricka Fleming, 26, of Clinton Township, said she put her son, Lamar Mitchell, to bed around 10 p.m. Jan. 22, 2023. He was wearing only an undershirt and underwear.
Macomb County Prosecutor Peter Lucido said Fleming then left the child alone inside their unit at the Saravilla Apartments.
Lamar also left the apartment after his mother’s departure, and he did so without the proper clothing for the cold temperatures. He was found during the early hours of the following morning in a park near 15 Mile and Harper roads. The park has a jungle gym and a basketball hoop.
He was taken to a nearby hospital and pronounced dead.
Mother sentenced
Fleming pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter, a 15-year felony, and was sentenced to two years of probation by a Macomb County Circuit Court judge.
In a release sent Wednesday, June 26, 2023, Lucido said he disagrees with the judge’s sentence.
“While we respect the court’s decision, our office firmly believed that confinement was warranted in this tragic case,” Lucido said. “We requested incarceration to underscore the severity of the crime and to seek justice for the loss of this young life. However, the court has chosen to impose probation instead.”
