Man gets probation for hot-car death of his infant daughter

MCKINNEY, Texas (AP) — A North Texas man has received five years’ probation after a jury convicted him of criminally negligent homicide in the hot-car death of his infant daughter.

A Collin County jury deliberated more than four hours before finding 35-year-old Michael Thedford guilty in the June 21, 2016, death of six-monthold Fern Thedford.

Thedford had delivered two older children to a day care center, but Fern had an ear infection and was to spend the day with him. Thedford told investigators he’d forgotten his daughter when they returned the family minivan to their Melissa home. He fell asleep and remembered the child only upon awakening more than four hours later, when temperatures were in the mid-90s.

He tried but failed to save the unconscious baby’s life by placing her in the refrigerator.