Crime Florida dad left toddler son to die in hot car for 3 hours as he got haircut, went drinking at bar: police - Scott Allen Gardner, 33, allegedly locked his 18-month-old son, Sebastian, inside his sweltering truck when he freshened up his ‘do and stopped at Hanky Panky’s Lounge in Ormond Beach, Florida, on June 6, police said.

https://nypost.com/2025/06/20/us-ne...-drank-at-hanky-panky-lounge-in-ormond-beach/
https://archive.is/DOFje

1:15

A Florida dad is accused of leaving his helpless toddler to die inside his hot car for hours while he got a haircut and stopped to grab a drink at a bar in blazing temperatures.

Scott Allen Gardner, 33, allegedly locked his 18-month-old son, Sebastian, inside his sweltering truck when he freshened up his ‘do and stopped at Hanky Panky’s Lounge in Ormond Beach, Florida, on June 6, police said.

The unaccompanied tot was left inside the blistering heat of the vehicle for over three hours as temperatures outside reached 92 degrees, the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post.

Medical examiners estimate the baby’s body temperature reached a deadly 111 degrees as he sat in the truck.

Law enforcement agents performed life-saving measures on Sebastian, but the baby ultimately succumbed to his injuries.

The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office alleges Gardner is responsible for little Sebastian’s death as he enjoyed a day in the Ormond-by-the-Sea neighborhood, eight miles north of Daytona Beach.

The heartless father allegedly gave multiple false accounts to police of the events leading up to his son’s death, the sheriff’s office said.

Gardner was arrested on Thursday after police tracked him down to his mother’s home in Ormond Beach.


Gardner was booked into Volusia County Jail and charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child and child neglect causing great bodily harm.

He was handed a $100,000 bond.

Bodycam footage from the sheriff’s office captured the moment the deadbeat dad was detained inside an enclosed porch on the property.

“The same OBPD officer who tried to revive Sebastian placed Gardner in handcuffs today as he was taken into custody at his mother’s home in Ormond Beach,” the sheriff’s office said.

As Gardner was led away from the home, two unidentified people called out to the suspected killer, saying they loved him.

“I love you guys,” Gardner replied before one of the officers told him, “Say goodbye, because you’re not going to come back here again.”

 

[Memes Cat]

It's just embarrassing and shameful that you let your kid die while drinking at a place called Hanky Panky's. Geez Louise

 

[Meat Target]

Growing up I always planned on going into law enforcement like my old man. I even began the entry prereques at the DoC academy. There was a two week waiting period between doing the initial physicals and the psych eval and polygraph, and during that time I did a lot of praying and soul searching. I kept asking myself "Can I spend every day, day in and day out for the rest of my life, around the absolute worst that humanity has to offer? Around pedophiles, killers, rapists, drug pushers...can I be around this monstrous filth every day and not bring that home with me at night? Not have it destroy my humanity? To keep it from negatively impacting my future wife and kids?" and I ultimately decided that I could not. And reading this story I find that I made the right call, because if I was a cop who had to arrest someone who could do this to a child, their OWN child...I don't think I could stop myself from clearing leather and blowing this piece of shit's brains all over the asphalt with my service pistol right then and there. He'd be dead, and I'd be the one going to prison. I made the right call.

I'm deadass surprised there aren't more cases of cops turning into vigilantes or serial killers.

 

[obsdj]

He's proceeding as indigent. The public defender assigned to him has already asked to withdraw.

 

[Blewberry Nausea]

He's proceeding as indigent. The public defender assigned to him has already asked to withdraw.

Wyświetl załącznik 7562176

What’s a regional counsel?

“In the context of Florida's legal system, "Regional Counsel" refers to the Office of Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsel, a state agency providing legal representation to indigent individuals when the Public Defender has a conflict of interest. These offices are established in each of the five District Court of Appealregions of Florida. They handle both criminal conflict cases and various civil cases, including involuntary civil commitments”

I wonder what the conflict of interest was.

 

[TheArtilleryman]

What causes these ultra retards to think that baking your child alive in a car is a cheat code for not taking responsibility?
Yes officer, I accidentally locked someone in my car for three hours, as we all do from time to time. I'm such a klutz. I can go home now, right? Why are you covering your bodycam?

The foolish autist in me that tries to apply logic to everything says that maybe he thought to let his kid take his afternoon nap in the car, before the day became hot enough to kill him, and then neglected to come back for 3 hours in typical deadbeat dad fashion. I'm aware this is foolish, don't automatically attribute stupidity to malice and all that, it's just hard to believe that someone CAN do what he did intentionally. I reckon if he wanted to kill his kid he would have opted for another method and this was instead a very serious case of neglect that is still ultimately equivalent to murder. I feel like this asshole must have left his kid alone in the car many times before, to no (fatal) issue, only this time he fucked off for too long in to a cool air-conditioned bar and was oblivious to the heat outside and so he let his kid die.

He should hang in any case.

 

[stupid frog]

Sometimes I open my car door, and it's so hot I can see the heat in the fucking air.
Even I don't want to be in there.

 

[Blewberry Nausea]

and then neglected to come back for 3 hours in typical deadbeat dad fashion.

He did actually leave the bar to check on a vehicle, just not his. Apparently someone hit the bartender’s car around 1pm and being a knight in shining armor our dutiful dad went outside for her to check on the damage. Didn’t check on his cooking child though and went back to buying more rounds for the bar and downing more shots of fireball.


Personally I hope this guy gets fucked so hard his mom feels it. When they finally discovered the kid who was already showing signs of rigor mortis and dealt with the authorities, our parental pair of pinheads decided to return to the scene of the crime to get wasted till midnight. They earned it after all, it was grief stricken binge drinking!

 

[Naproxen Sodium]

You just don't forget children in cars. You either are actively trying to murder them using the 'I forgot' excuse or you simply do not care. Watched another one from Louisiana where the piss drunk mother was trying to do a money order at Wal-Mart and left her 16 day old old infant in the car in the LA sun with the heater running. I think they said it was over 100F that day. She said 'Well the car was running..." WITH THE HEAT ON IN THE SUN. She was also wanted for a hit and run same day of this.

All these cases and there are so many people who would be great parents and can't have them...

 

[obsdj]

All of the docs in this dirtbag's case are still "confidential" for some reason, but yet another public defender (conflict counsel) asked to withdraw.


Also, his paternity case against the mother of the baby has been dismissed, also confidential naturally.

 

[obsdj]

Attorneys keep asking to withdraw from this case. I don't wanna tell the court what to do, heh heh, but maybe they'd have better luck moving forward if they stop asking female attorneys to defend this baby-killing fuck.

 

[Blewberry Nausea]

Did he just go full schizo or something? Being belligerent to delay his comeuppance? Is this some kind of Mercedes Carrera 2.0?

 

[obsdj]

Did he just go full schizo or something? Being belligerent to delay his comeuppance?

It could work, I guess. Do shenanigans until the general public forgets about you and the case isn't front and center of the local news anymore. Or, maybe nobody wants to take the case, especially women, because he killed his baby.

I'm not sure why all the docs are still confidential. I know the victim is a child, but it seems like the charging documents at least should be public. Seems weird that none of them are.

Oh, AND...First degree felony murder is on the table now, I just noticed.


Ladies and gentlemen, we have ourselves a capital case.

 

[Blewberry Nausea]

I know the victim is a child

They did release the name of the victim at least

Manslaughter?... Woopsie I just COOKED MY CHILD TO DEATH!!! Oh well, didn't mean to leave him in the car so long, i'm such a klutz.

Congrats, he’s up on Murder charges!

 

[ShitLurker]

Kill him, just kill him.

 

[obsdj]

Kill him, just kill him.

Now that the death penalty is on the table, I assume he'll plead out. If he can hold on to a lawyer long enough to do so, anyway.

 

[Disdainer of the Plebs]

Attorneys keep asking to withdraw from this case. I don't wanna tell the court what to do, heh heh, but maybe they'd have better luck moving forward if they stop asking female attorneys to defend this baby-killing fuck.
Wyświetl załącznik 7656386

Why do you think men would be more on board with defending a filicide? Were I a lawyer, the only reason I would take that case is to go And justice for all on his ass.

 

[obsdj]

I remembered to check in on this case and realized you can view the "confidential" docs in the docket if you sign up for an account with the clerk's site, so...Here are some of the materials. (The baby's name was Sebastian.)

From the charging affadavit:





From the motion for pre-trial detainment (which was later granted):



From the grand jury indictment (note the murder charge "but without the intent to murder"):



And the most recent of several attorneys to beg the court to let her withdraw from the case (but as far as I can tell, she's still stuck with the murdering sack of shit as of today):


There've been numerous attempts to schedule pre-trial hearings, but they keep getting continued/rescheduled; defendant has evidently waived his right to a speedy trial (WRST).


Maybe he really is trying to drag it all out until his story has been forgotten by the community. But anybody who gets their hands on that charging affidavit, or hears about it at trial, is unlikely to forget.

 

[Blewberry Nausea]

Holy shit nice find dude it is appreciated! What a fucking disaster I really hope that cop who told him he’d never be free again was right.

 

[obsdj]

Scumbag was supposed to have a pre-trial hearing yesterday, but once again it has been continued by the defense. New date scheduled for January 21st, and per the docket he still has the same female lawyer (the one who was last seen desperately trying to get out of having to defend this guy).



I can only assume they really are just trying to delay, delay, delay having to actually bring this before a jury in hopes that the community forgets what this fucker did.

 

[obsdj]

Scumbag finally has acquired himself a private attorney, who also happens to be male (though the court-appointed attorney, the woman who was desperately trying to get out of it, is also still listed as being on the case).


The new guy has also filed a lengthy discovery demand.




The (private) pre-trial hearing is still scheduled for January 21st. I'd love to be a fly on that wall. So I could land quietly on the defendant and infect him with something nasty.