ORLANDO, Fla. — An Orange County woman facing manslaughter and child neglect charges for the death of a boy in a hot vehicle last year has bonded out of jail.
- Mariah Butler arrested Tuesday, granted bond
- Logan Starling died in September 2018
- Investigators: Starling's temperature was 108 degrees
- INTERACTIVE: How hot can your vehicle get? ▼
Deputies arrested Mariah Butler, 27, on Tuesday. A judge granted her $15,150 bond for the charges Wednesday afternoon and was released from jail Wednesday night. She was also appointed a public defender.
Butler is accused of leaving 4-year-old Logan Starling in a van outside Elite Preparatory Academy on Oak Ridge Road last September.
Butler, who’s been in a relationship with Starling’s father, took the child and four others to school, but investigators allege she left Starling in the hot van to die.
According to Butler’s statement given to police last, she says that all of the children left her vehicle with her and went in to school. A surveillance photo in the investigative report shows Mariah walking into the school with only four children that day.
A report shows Butler, who worked at the school at the time, had been approached about Starling's absence and thought the question was a joke. That's when she went to check the van. An autopsy report confirmed Logan died of hyperthermia.
Logan’s mother Shelby Hester can’t forgive her.
“I believe she did it on purpose,” Hester said after learning Mariah was granted bond.
Investigators say when Starling was found, his core temperature was 108 degrees. The van he was inside ranged from 106 to 121 degrees.
His death was originally ruled an accident.