Florida Pastor Charged After Leaving Infant In Hot Car For 3 Hours To Attend Church Services

Within one week, another Black mother is charged with endangering her child by leaving them in the car.

This time, the New York Post reports Bulaine Molme of Florida left her 11-month-old baby in a hot car for three hours while she officiated a church service. She was booked last week on a felony count of manslaughter of a child at the Brevard County jail. Officials were called to Mount of Olives Evangelical Church, with a predominately Haitian congregation, in Palm Bay after reports of an unresponsive infant. Molme, 37, told detectives she was late for the church service and thought a congregation member had brought her infant daughter inside.

Service was over by the time she realized the baby was never inside. The high temperature that day was 81, and according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, temperatures inside a car can reach up to 105 degrees for a 75-degree day. Children’s body temperature goes up almost five times faster than adults. Heatstroke sets in once the body temperature rises to 104 degrees.

She rushed to the vehicle to find the baby strapped in the car seat, unresponsive. The baby was pronounced dead at Palm Bay Community Hospital after several attempts of CPR were performed on her.

Molme and her husband, Jnmarc, have three other children. The couple started the church in 2019, with only nine people at a nearby park, before moving to a storefront property. Her bond was set at $15,000; if convicted, the pastor could face up to 30 years in state prison. However, criminal trial expert, Geoff Golub, feels this case may be hard to prove in a court of law. “If you really assume someone is taking the baby, then I think you have a good defense,” Golub told Fox 35 Orlando.

“I think sometimes you just have tragic things that happen. Obviously, she is going to be scarred for the rest of her life.” He thinks the manslaughter charge may not stick with Florida is second in the nation for hot car deaths.