A Collin County father is on trial this week in the 2013 death of his toddler.
A grand jury indicted Joshua Cartee with three counts, including manslaughter, after his two-year-old son, Jorden, was found unresponsive in a hot car.
According to testimony by Melissa police officers, Cartee told first responders that the boy had somehow gotten outside while he was taking a nap.
Cartee woke up, saw the back door open and started a frantic search.
An unconscious Jorden was later found in a car parked in the family’s driveway, a favorite play spot for the toddler.
Officers could not estimate the temperature in the car that September day, but described it as “dangerously hot”.
To the Cartee family, however, it was a tragic accident.
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Lennie Cartee, Jorden’s paternal grandfather, says his son can’t forgive himself.
“I know it was an accident,” he said. “It wasn’t nobody’s fault - just a horrible thing that happened. If you’ve got kids, you know you turn your back for a second, they’re gone.”
Cartee says his son was arrested just outside Jorden’s hospital room before the boy passed away.
The family is outraged the case got as far as a jury trial.
However, the Cartees had a previous run-in with Child Protective Services.
Earlier in 2013, police report Jorden was found alone on the side of Highway U.S. 121 in Anna, wearing only a diaper.
CPS worked with the family to make a safety plan, including the purchase and installation of extra locks, as well as instructions for the Cartee’s two boys to be constantly supervised.
According to investigators, the extra locks on the family’s back door were not being used the second time Jorden got out of the house.
The family says the boys’ mother had opened the door to take the older son to school. One of the locks only latches from the inside and hadn’t been secured again.
The state rested its case against Cartee on Tuesday afternoon.
The defense portion of the trial will resume Wednesday morning.
