‘All I have now is memories’: Mom wants incoming state attorney to reopen son’s hot car death case

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — On Sept. 11, Makia Wallace said goodbye to her 21-month-old son Jace as his caregiver Dougkindra Wallace, no relation, to him to daycare as she had done for the past 10 months.

But that day, “he never made it to school,” his mother said.

According to an arrest affidavit, that day around 7:40 a.m. Wallace dropped off her son at his babysitter’s house. She was then supposed to drop off Jace at his daycare, but instead drove to Rolling Hills Elementary where she worked as a third-grade teacher.

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More than seven hours later, when she went to the daycare to pick up her son, she realized his lifeless body was in the backseat.

“All I have now is memories,” Makia Wallace said.

The caregiver was charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child and child neglect. But in October, those charges were dropped.

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Makia Wallace said she had a conversation with State Attorney Aramis Ayala.

“I began to ask why the office is not filing charges and she began to explain … it was a tragic accident,” Wallace said.

She said there are two other cases in the 9th District with similar circumstances that were prosecuted.

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Wallace is now asking incoming State Attorney Monique Worrell, who will be sworn in next month, to reopen the case and to hold Dougkindra Wallace accountable for her son’s death.

Woman charged in death of toddler who was left in hot car for almost 8 hours A 34-year-old woman was charged in the death of a toddler who was left in a hot car for almost eight hours earlier this month, the Orange County Sheriff’s Offic

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