LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. (Court TV) — A woman will be allowed to spend Halloween trick-or-treating with her kids despite the fact that she is facing murder charges in the death of her youngest child, a judge ruled on Thursday.
Deja Coleman appears at a bond hearing on Sept. 9, 2026. (Court TV)
Deja Coleman, 29, is charged with second-degree murder and cruelty to children in the death of her son, Daniel Jr., who was found dead in her car while she was at work as a nursing assistant on July 29, 2026. Investigators said that temperatures inside the car reached 130 degrees. Coleman has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Coleman’s attorney, Trinity Hundredmark, filed a motion last week asking the court to amend her client’s bond ahead of Halloween. The motion, reviewed by Court TV, acknowledges that the defendant was released on a bond that requires her to be under strict house arrest except for appointments with attorneys, medical providers or required therapy in the community where she lives.
Hundredmark’s motion alerted the court that Coleman and her two surviving children, ages 4 and 6, were invited to take part in a Halloween trick-or-treating program, but prosecutors advised that they believed any participation would violate her bond conditions.
In court on Thursday, Hundredmark urged the judge to allow her client to go trick-or-treating. “This is a mother that wants to be a mother,” Hundredmark said in court, WAGA reported. “She wants to parent. And we believe that’s what your bond order had originally wanted her to do. You didn’t put any restrictions on her ability to parent and have her children, and not to allow her to have trick-or-treating with her kids is simply punishment to her.”
The judge granted the defense’s request to let Coleman participate in the Halloween program, as well as a second request to allow Coleman to begin working at the front desk in her housing community, WXIA reported. While Coleman may trick-or-treat with her children, she must remain inside the community while doing so.
On the day of her 16-month-old son’s death, Coleman dropped her two older children off at daycare but never brought the youngest child inside. The defendant allegedly told people inside the facility that she would be back in a minute with the baby but never came back in. Instead, prosecutors said she returned to her car and drove to work, forgetting her child while on FaceTime.
The judge has not yet set a trial date for Coleman, who has no other hearings scheduled.
