BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — Court documents are now giving us a better look into why a 20-month-old child was left in the car for four hours in the middle of September, resulting in his death of hyperthermia.
- On September 28, 39-year-old Lorenzo Anthony Johnson was driving with a child less than 2-year-old when he — according to a sheriff investigators — stopped near a home on Squire Lane and left the car with the child inside.
- Johnson appeared in court Monday but the hearing was postponed.
- Johnson is charged with involuntary manslaughter, cruelty to a child, possession of a firearm by a felon, and pimping and pandering.
Over a month after a child was found dead in a car due to hyperthermia, the man charged with his death was due in court for a preliminary hearing. Now, court documents are giving us a better look into why the child was left in the car for four hours in the middle of September.
On September 28, 39-year-old Lorenzo Anthony Johnson was driving with a child less than 2-year-old when he — according to a sheriff investigators — stopped near a home on Squire Lane and left the car with the child inside.
The police report stated that Johnson claimed he forgot the child because he “saw subjects that had been harassing him...and went into the house to retrieve a firearm to kill the subject.”
Police noted in the report that Johnson said he didn’t see the subjects again when he check surveillance video.
According to the coroner’s report, the child — named Dream Shorter — was 20 months old and was found dead around 4 p.m.
Investigators reported the child had been in the parked car for nearly four hours before Johnson remembered him. Johnson told police he remembered the child only after his wife asked, according to court documents.
National Weather Service data put the temperature highs that day at around 95 degrees.
Johnson appeared in court Monday but the hearing was postponed.
Neighbors in the area told me while they remembered emergency crews arriving that day, no one could remember subjects outside beforehand harassing Johnson, nor have they seen the family since that day.
Johnson is charged with involuntary manslaughter, cruelty to a child, possession of a firearm by a felon, and pimping and pandering.
While it’s unclear what the pimping and pandering charges are related to, according to the online sex offender registry Johnson was registered after being convicted in 2008 for lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14.
While the police report put’s Johnson’s address in East Bakersfield, the child was found in the vehicle in Southwest Bakersfield, down the street from Jame’s Curran Middle School.
Neighbors told me they often saw Johnson at the residence, but had very little interaction with him.
Johnson is due back in court on December 6.
Stay in Touch with Us Anytime, Anywhere:
