BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – A Brevard County pastor charged in the death of her baby found in a hot car will stay out of jail after pleading no contest to the charges on Wednesday.
Bulaine Molme was arrested last summer after her nearly 1-year-old baby, Fendra Molme, was left alone in the car for three hours and was found in a car seat with a body temperature of 108 degrees at Mount of Olives Evangelical Baptist Church in Palm Bay.
Molme, a pastor, told police she thought other members of the church took the baby out of the car while she was getting ready for the service. Investigators learned she arrived late to the service.
In an interview with a church member, they told police that someone else would normally take care of Molme’s baby in church. But on that morning, police said surveillance video showed Bulaine Molme and her three older children get out of the car while no one grabbed the baby.
She was first facing a first-degree felony of aggravated manslaughter of a child, but prosecutors later reduced the charges to a third-degree felony of leaving a child alone in a car with bodily harm after reviewing the case.
Molme received two years of probation, and will have to install an emergency alert system in her car any time she is driving with children under the age of six.
Her attorney said she’s not getting off easy.
“This is a tragedy, nothing more, nothing less, a tragedy,” Michael Cook said. “She’s grieving. She’ll continue to grieve.”
Molme’s defense attorney said as a pastor, the mother’s faith is helping her pull through the tragedy.
“It’s completely unnatural to have a child predecease a parent,” Cook said. “She’s dealing the best she can.”
In court, a prosecutor brought up how Molme has been cooperative with the investigation and before the death of her daughter, she had no prior criminal record.
Get today’s headlines in minutes with Your Florida Daily: