Rockledge father fights to dismiss hot-car murder charge

Defense attorneys for a man charged with murder after leaving his infant daughter in a sweltering pickup truck for up to seven hours are questioning the constitutionality of a state statute related to the case.

Steven D. Lillie, 33, was charged with third-degree felony murder, felony voluntary manslaughter and one felony count of injury of a child under the age of 6 by leaving them in a vehicle without permission in connection with his 9-month-old daughter’s June 2014 death.

Lawyers contend that there was no criminal intent involved on the part of the father and that the state law criminalizes what otherwise was a tragic mistake.

“There is no evidence in this case that Steven Lillie intentionally left his daughter in his motor vehicle. Rather all the evidence indicates Mr. Lillie forgot his daughter was in the vehicle," Lillie’s attorneys wrote in a motion to a judge.

The attorneys were schedule to go before a judge at the Viera courthouse on September 15 to discuss the motion to dismiss the murder and manslaughter charges but the hearing was canceled by a judge just before the hearing was to begin.

Lillie, who does not have any prior criminal record, could face up to 40 years in state prison if convicted on the charges as they stand.

A 1985 law enacted by the Florida legislature made leaving a child in a car for more than 15 minutes a noncriminal traffic infraction punishable by a fine. In 2007, the law was amended to allow the state to charge possible offenders with a third-degree felony.

Lillie, who worked at a Fraternal Order of Police call center on Barton Boulevard, told police that he was supposed to drop off his daughter with his grandmother and then head to his job. Hours later, Lillie found the child’s lifeless body in the back of his pickup truck after a relative called him to ask about the infant’s whereabouts, police reported.

Father of baby who died in hot car released on bond

Crying and distraught, he later got on the phone with a 911 dispatcher and said he had forgotten about the child being in the truck.

"She's been in the car for hours, and I absolutely forgot about her," Lillie told dispatchers. "She's not alive.”

The hearing will be held in Circuit Judge Charles Crawford’s Moore Justice Center courtroom.

Contact Gallop at 321-242-3642, jdgallop@floridatoday.com and Twitter at @JDGallop