A Bristow woman is scheduled to stand trial this week in the death of her 2-year-old son, who died when he was left alone in a van on a warm June day.
Karen Murphy’s trial on charges of felony murder, child abuse and child neglect is slated to begin Monday in Prince William County Circuit Court.
Prosecutors allege that she left Ryan in her van on June 17 when she went to her job at a veterinary hospital. When she found the toddler seven hours later, he was dead.
It wasn’t the first time Murphy, 40, left the boy alone in a vehicle, according to prosecutors. In January 2011, she briefly left Ryan in the van, until his day care provider called to ask why he wasn’t there.
Prince William Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul Ebert and defense attorney Edward MacMahon did not respond to requests for comment Friday.
After a grand jury returned the indictments against Murphy in July, MacMahon called Ryan’s death a “tragic accident” and said Murphy was “devastated” by what happened.
Ebert has said there’s no indication Ryan’s death was intentional; a felony homicide is an accidental killing committed during some other felony offense — in Murphy’s case, child abuse and neglect, according to prosecutors.
If convicted of felony murder — the most-serious charge against her — Murphy could face between five and 40 years behind bars.
Last year, 33 children across the United States died from hyperthermia — or overheating — after they were left in vehicles, according to data compiled by a San Francisco State University Professor who tracks such deaths. Over the past 13 years, 52 percent of children who died that way had been forgotten in the car by a caregiver, according to the data.
It is common for those caregivers to face criminal charges. The child-safety advocacy group KidsAndCars.org says parents are criminally charged in about 60 percent of heat-death cases; non-parent guardians are charged 80 percent of the time.
Charges are most likely to be filed when there are indications of past neglect or abuse, or drug and alcohol use. Ebert has said the January incident contributed to their decision to charge Murphy.
Between 1998 and 2003, prosecutors filed charges in hot-vehicle deaths “in virtually every case where any sort of aggravating factor was present,” a nationwide study published in the Northwestern University Law Review found.
