A Belcamp father pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Harford County Circuit Court Monday for his role in the death of his 6-month-old daughter, who died in a hot pickup truck last summer.
Richard Dalton, 29, was originally scheduled for a trial this week on charges of second-degree murder, reckless endangerment and child neglect.
His sentencing has not yet been scheduled, but he faces up to 10 years in prison. Charles Waechter, a lawyer who represents Dalton, declined to comment on the case.
A police narrative in court records shows that before leaving for work on July 6, Dalton drove his infant daughter to his mother’s house in Belcamp. He briefly talked with his mother before one of the employees at his power-washing business picked him up for jobs in Middle River and Baltimore.
Dalton’s mother thought the infant was staying with the infant’s mother — Dalton’s longtime girlfriend — in Abingdon, according to police.
The young girl remained strapped to her infant safety seat behind the tinted windows of a 2015 Chevy Silverado at Dalton’s mother’s house in 88-degree heat, police wrote.
When Dalton arrived home around 9 p.m., he asked his mother where his daughter was, and the mother responded she “had not seen her all afternoon,” the police narrative said. Dalton immediately rushed outside to his truck and began rendering CPR on his unresponsive daughter.
The girl was taken to the Upper Chesapeake Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead around 10:30 p.m.
Amber Rollins, director of nonprofit Kids and Cars Safety, which is focused on saving the lives of children around motor vehicles, said she doesn’t believe cases like this are criminal acts.
“These are, the overwhelming majority of the time, tragic, unintentional tragedies,” Rollins said. “Charging these parents isn’t justice. It doesn’t keep children safer. It doesn’t prevent future tragedies.”
Maryland has had 16 children die in hot cars from 1990 to 2025, according to data from Kids and Cars Safety.
Criminalizing these acts, Rollins said, works against prevention efforts, as it makes people think this is a “bad thing that bad people did.” This makes other parents think it won’t happen to them, she added.
These types of cases can happen to anyone, Rollins said. Most of the time these tragedies happen to “to loving responsible parents with no criminal history, with no substance abuse issues.”
If several factors align, such as a change in routine, sleep deprivation or being overwhelmed, it can lead to a “failure of the memory system,” she said.
In a similar case just two months prior to the death of Dalton’s daughter, in May 2025, a 2-year-old girl died after being left in a car in Silver Spring, according to the Montgomery County Police Department. An HCPD spokesperson said no charges were filed in that case.
Criminal charges in cases of this type can vary by jurisdiction. An analysis by Kids and Cars found 43% of people involved in child hot car deaths are not charged and at least 50% do not end in a conviction, according to data from 1990 to 2024.
“There’s no rhyme or reason,” Rollins said. “You could have two nearly identical cases, and in one case, the parent is not charged at all, and in the other case, the parent is charged with multiple felonies and facing decades in prison within the same state.”
When charges are filed, it’s not uncommon to see pleadings by defendants who “don’t have the fight” to go to trial, Rollins said; it’s rare to see jail time for these offenses, as they typically end in probationary agreements.
“It’s a really, absolutely just devastating, kind of grief that is completely consuming,” she said. “A lot of these parents feel like they deserve it.”
These types of deaths proliferated in the mid-1990s after a successful push to put children in the backseat due to airbag deaths in the front. While Rollins said the backseat is still the safest option, it led to the “unintended consequence” of these hot car deaths.
To prevent this happening, Rollins suggests keeping a visual reminder in the front seat of your car, such as a stuffed animal or a diaper bag, when your child is in the back.
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