On June 19, Scott Allen Gardner was arrested after police said he left his 18-month-old son to die in a hot truck while he got a haircut and drinks at a bar in Ormond Beach.
Police say Gardner left the boy, Sebastian, in a child seat in the back of his vehicle for about three hours on June 6. It was during the middle of the day when the temperature was about 90 degrees, according to a charging affidavit.
Gardner is charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child and child neglect causing great bodily harm. In a pretrial detention hearing June 24, Gardner was ordered held without bail.
What do we know about Scott Allen Gardner?
Gardner, 33, resides in Ormond Beach, where his mother also lives, but a search on LexisNexis shows he is also registered at an address in South Daytona. He previously lived in Ipswich, Massachusetts.
According to Gardner’s mother, Jodi Thereault (who also spells her name “Jody”), Gardner moved to Volusia County five years ago from Massachusetts. She said at his June 24 court appearance that he worked as a carpenter and a cook.
According to Assistant State Attorney Andrew Urbanak, Gardner’s past criminal history includes a battery charge from 2023 in Brevard County involving Sebastian’s mother at the Brevard Zoo. He also has some cases from Massachusetts, including a credit card fraud and a cocaine charge in 2015. He was not convicted of the Massachusetts cases. Urbanak did not give the outcome of the Brevard case.
According to court documents, Sebastian was born in Hollister, Florida, an unincorporated community in Putnam County. Gardner and the child’s mother are separated and the mother does not live in Volusia. Gardner was caring for Sebastian the day he died.
Ormond Beach toddler’s body temperature hit 111 degrees, nurses estimate
Gardner told authorities that while he was caring for his son that day, the boy appeared to be sick. Later that day, Gardner went to get a haircut. He left his son in the car with the engine off, windows down, and a small battery-operated fan pointed at him.
After the haircut, Gardner went to Hanky Panky’s Lounge in Ormond-by-the-Sea. And again he left his son alone in the car. Gardner later called 911 and reported that the boy was unresponsive, and later pronounced dead. Medical personnel estimated that Sebastian’s body temperature had reached 111 degrees while trapped in the car.
Law enforcement said the child likely died while Gardner was inside Hanky Panky’s, putting his death between one and two hours before Gardner called 911.
What about Gardner’s mother, Jody Thereault?
Later that same day, after learning Sebastian was dead and after Gardner was released from being Baker Acted, Gardner and his mother returned to Hanky Panky’s and stayed there until around midnight, according to the court affidavit.
A search on LexisNexis found that Thereault, 62, has lived in Ormond Beach since 2012, moving to the area from Ipswich, Massachusetts.
Thereault posted the following unedited plea on her Facebook page June 10 (before Gardner’s arrest): “Please help my Son Scott Gardner his son Sebastian passed. This is so hard for me to write this I miss him so much.” Several comments to the post refer to a GoFundMe campaign Thereault had previously launched asking for monetary contributions for the family.
Kylea Marie Casteel wrote: “If you explained what happened to that baby and who did it, nobody in their right mind would be donating to this GoFundMe. Your son, Scott Gardner, is the sole reason this poor baby is gone.”
Another response, by Lily Elizabeth, read: “Give all of that money back, you scumbag. Your son murdered his baby!”
Desiree Gorum wrote: “Beyond bold asking for money for your son who basically baked his son alive to go get a chair cut and day drink. He deserves no sympathy.”
The link no longer works, and if there was a GoFundMe account, it appears to have been removed since a search of the website did not turn up any campaign under the name Gardner or Thereault.
Scott Allen Gardner denied bond based on threat of leaving, suicidal comment
Circuit Judge A. Christian Miller denied bond for Gardner, so he will remain in jail while his case goes through the legal process. Judge Miller said that while the case was in the early stages, the prosecution appeared to have substantial evidence against Gardner, including threats of fleeing, suicidal statements he made and also his threats of violence against the ER doctor who told him his son had died.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Who is Scott Allen Gardner, accused of leaving his son to die while he drank in a bar?
Reporting by Colleen Michele Jones and Frank Fernandez, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
