Texas man charged with murder after 10-month-old baby ‘crammed’ in backpack dies in car
A Texas man has been charged with capital murder after his girlfriend’s daughter was stuffed into a backpack and left for hours in the trunk of his car.
Trevor Marquis Rowe, 27, dialed 911 on Tuesday evening to report that 10-month-old Marion Jester-Montoya had stopped breathing and he was going to stop his car to perform CPR, Lubbock police said.
The child was rushed to a hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Rowe had earlier picked up the child from her mother’s home and left for his job, according to a police affidavit obtained by local news outlets.
The warrant said that Rowe had “crammed” the child into a backpack and left her on the front passenger floorboard of his Dodge Charger while he went to work, according to Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.
He later returned to check on the child, who had freed herself from the backpack, according to the warrant. He put the infant back into the backpack and again went to work.
During his lunch break around 1 p.m., Rowe returned to find her “lightly crying but breathing,” KAMC-TV reported. He put the backpack containing the girl inside his trunk and didn’t return until shortly before 5 p.m. He found she had stopped breathing.
Rowe was arrested Tuesday night for the death of Marion and charged with capital murder the following day.
“Trevor Rowe advised he knew that placing a person into a trunk was dangerous to human life,” the warrant said, according to the Avalanche-Journal. “Trevor Rowe advised that placing someone into a backpack was even more dangerous.”
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The infant’s mother, who was not identified in the warrant, has not been charged, the paper reported.
Rowe was jailed in Lubbock County on $2 million bond. Jail records list no attorney for the accused.
A fundraiser has been set up to assist the family.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.