Snellville man arrested in hot car death of 8-month-old daughter

SNELLVILLE — The GBI is investigating the death of an 8-month-old girl in Snellville that was brought to Piedmont Eastside Hospital on Tuesday.

What we know

On Tuesday afternoon after 2 p.m., Davied Whatley, of Snellville, came to the Snellville Police Department, which is located inside of Snellville City Hall to pick up a firearm that was taken in a previous incident.

During a routine background check that police run before returning firearms, Whatley was discovered to have a warrant against him for a probation violation. Police arrested Whatley for the outstanding warrant at that time and transported him to the Gwinnett County jail.

Police later discovered that Whatley had left his 8-month-old child, Nova Grace Whatley-Trejo in the car while he was in the police station. The child’s grandmother came to City Hall that evening, before police were made aware of the child’s whereabouts, to get the child out of the car.

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By the time the grandmother arrived, Nova was dead. The grandmother took the child to Piedmont Eastside Hospital.

According to police, at no point while he was at city hall or in police custody did Whatley make any mention of his child being in the car.

Whatley was released Tuesday night on bond, and arrested again Wednesday morning on charges related to Nova’s death. Whatley has been charged with 2nd degree murder.