
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. -- Omar Long cried in the courtroom while listening to details of his daughter's death today.
The prosecution said the night before 23-month-old Arianna Long died, her father was out all night with friends, drinking and socializing. Then he went back to his home in the St. Augustine South neighborhood around 5 in the morning on June 14. Thirty-year-old Long lived with his girlfriend, children, brother and sister-in-law.
Lashondia Anderson, Arianna's mother, testified she was angry with Long because he did not answer her calls that night. When he came home, Anderson said, she did not speak to him.
He fell asleep on the couch and she finished getting ready for work, she said.
Anderson testified that she woke him up around 5:45 to drive her to work at Flagler Hospital. As she carried Arianna to the car that morning, the little girl sang to her, Anderson said.
Long's attorney, Jill Barger, had said her client was tired when he drove to Flagler Hospital.
"When we got to the light on the way to the hospital, he had fallen asleep. He didn't go when the light turned green," Anderson said.
When they arrived at the hospital, he dropped her off and, "I got out and I opened up the back door and kissed [Arianna] on the cheek. I told her I loved her. She said, 'I love you too, Mommy,'" Anderson said.
That was the last time Anderson saw her alive.
After Long drove back home, he walked back inside and left his toddler in the back seat of the car.
Long's sister-in-law, Seritia Montgomery, found the child six hours later in the car seat around noon. She testified today that the car was running and locked.
Montgomery said she told her husband and he woke up Long, his brother. Long used a spare key to open the car and then pulled the toddler from the car.
A paramedic testified that Arianna was rushed to the hospital and pronounced dead there.
Long was distraught and said he forgot Arianna was in the car, said St. Johns County Sheriff's Office Detective Kevin Roberts, who arrived at the hospital later that day.
Roberts testified that Long said, "I killed my baby. I killed my baby."
Roberts also testified that days later, Long said he did not know Arianna was in the car. Long cooperated with law enforcement, he said.
In court, Arianna's mother could hardly look at the photograph of the empty car seat when it was placed it front of her. She started crying on the stand.
A crime scene technician testified that after she placed a thermometer in the car around 2 p.m. that day for 15 minutes, it registered about 120 degrees.
The trial continues Wednesday. Long is charged with aggravated manslaughter and child neglect.
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Created: 11/17/2009 6:47:44 PM 



