A Peters man who left his infant in a hot van for hours in June pleaded guilty on Wednesday to involuntary manslaughter.
Khang Nguyen, 33, was ordered to serve two years probation by Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Jill E. Rangos. He also pleaded to one count of reckless endangerment.
According to a criminal complaint, Nguyen told police he forgot that his 3-month-old son, Kayden, was in his 2022 Toyota Sienna from just before 11 a.m. on June 16 until after 4:30 p.m.
Nguyen told detectives he had intended to leave the boy in the van outside his family’s nail salon on Sienna Drive while he ran inside to pay an employee and make a few phone calls.
He said he left the vehicle running with the air conditioning on — knowing it would shut off automatically after an hour.
But Nguyen said he ended up staying at the salon until it was time to pick up his other son at the Goddard School at 4 p.m.
Nguyen told investigators he didn’t notice Kayden in his car seat in the van’s middle row when he buckled his other son into the car seat next to him or when he got the other boy out of the van at his parents’ house.
Security footage from the Fort Couch Road home showed Nguyen arriving just after 4:45 p.m., when he took his other son out of the vehicle and inside.
Less than a minute later, the footage shows Nguyen running back to the van and taking Kayden’s car seat inside.
Cameras inside the house showed Nguyen pacing with the child, who appeared to be motionless and gray, in his arms.
Audio from the cameras showed Nguyen ignoring pleas from his parents to start CPR and call for help, the criminal complaint said.
Kayden was pronounced dead shortly before 5:30 p.m. and died as a result of hyperthermia.
The high temperature that day was 91 degrees shortly before 4 p.m.
Attorney William Difenderfer, who represented Nguyen, said on Wednesday that his client is in grief counseling.
“Everybody acknowledged it was an accident and total tragedy,” Difenderfer said.
