Prosecutor receives autopsy on Hot Springs judge’s son
The special prosecutor investigating the death of a Garland County judge’s son has received the autopsy report in the toddler’s death but is still awaiting more information in the case.
Scott Ellington confirmed Tuesday that his office received the state medical examiner’s autopsy report on Thomas Naramore, the 1- year- old son of Garland County Circuit Judge Wade Naramore.
A preliminary investigation showed that Thomas died July 24 in Hot Springs as the result of “excessive heat” after being left unattended in a hot car for an unknown amount of time.
“We have not had a chance to completely review [ the autopsy report],” said Ellington of Jonesboro, the 2nd Judicial Circuit prosecuting attorney who has been appointed as a special prosecutor in Thomas’ case.
No criminal charges have been filed in the case.
After the death, other circuit judges stepped in to hear cases for Naramore, who handles primarily cases involving children. He was previously a deputy prosecuting attorney in Garland County.
“This matter remains under investigation as we continue to review all the information gathered by the Hot Springs Police Department,” Ellington said. “We have asked [ Hot Springs police] to follow up on some of the information they earlier provided. We do not have a certain timeline to meet.”
A statement from the Naramore family released in July to the The Sentinel- Record in Hot Springs called Thomas’ death a “tragic accident.”
Officers arrived at Fairoaks Place and James Street in Hot Springs at 3: 13 p. m. July 24, after Wade Naramore called 911, according to a Hot Springs Police Department report.
The high temperature in
Hot Springs that day was 101 degrees shortly before 5 p. m., according to National Weather Service records.
State Crime Laboratory Executive Director Kermit Channell said Tuesday that Thomas’ autopsy report was complete to the extent that it can be at this point, but the results are confidential.
Since 2005, at least 12 Arkansas children have died of heatstroke in vehicles, said Jan Null, a meteorologist and lecturer at California’s San Jose State University who tracks such data. Three of the deaths involved trunk entrapments.
In the 11 such deaths since 2005 that have been fully adjudicated, a recent Arkansas Democrat- Gazette review shows there were five convictions: four on misdemeanor charges and one on a felony
charge of negligent homicide.
In the negligent homicide case, the parents were given suspended sentences of one year in jail.
One of the misdemeanor convictions involved the 2009 deaths of two children, who were found unconscious in a car trunk in Springdale.
One case involved a misdemeanor negligent homicide charge that was later dropped.
No charges were filed in four of the cases.