Father indicted in death of boy left in hot van

A Williamson County grand jury Tuesday indicted on two felony counts the father of an 18-month-old boy who was forgotten in the family's mini van and died after more than six hours in the August heat.

Kesen Hu, 34, faces charges of criminally negligent homicide and endangering a child, both of which carry up to two years behind bars.

Hu was arrested within days of his son's death but later released on bail.

He and his attorney have said that what happened in the parking lot of a Northwest Austin office complex on Aug. 12 was a fatal oversight but did not constitute a crime.

According to a two-page indictment, Hu, through an act of omission, put his son "in imminent danger of death" by "confining Daniel Hu in a motor vehicle and exposing him to heat dangerous to human life."

Hu used several deadly weapons — a car, a car seat and heat — to carry out his crime, the indictment said.

"I felt confident the conduct here was covered by the Texas penal code," Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley said. "At the same time, I think we all have tremendous sympathies for the plight that the defendant is involved in the death of his son.

"But at the same time, the facts are the facts."

Bradley added that both charges include probation as a possible sentence.

Attorney Alan Bennett, who is representing Hu, declined to comment Tuesday night. He said he had not had a chance to review the indictment or speak to his client.

Daniel's death received further attention last summer after police confirmed that a woman had seen Daniel earlier in the day — when he was still alive — and reported it to a security guard.

Police have said that the guards made an effort to find Daniel but could not.

Bradley and Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo also publicly criticized each other's handling of the case. Daniel died in a part of Austin that is in Williamson County.

Bradley said Austin police were hesitant to charge Hu.

Acevedo said that Bradley tried to bully investigators into charging Hu, even though their inquiry was not yet finished and they were unsure they had evidence to support a case. Bradley then moved ahead with a case.

On Tuesday, Acevedo said investigators had diligently investigated the death.

"There is a process in place, and the process occurred, and now it is up to the district attorney and the jury," Acevedo said.

In a September interview, Hu told the American-Statesman that he did not typically take Daniel to day care each morning but was doing so that day to allow his wife to run errands.

That morning, he said, he followed his usual route to work as a software engineer at PayPal Inc.

He said that as he neared his parking lot and a turn toward Daniel's day care, he received a phone call from a company claiming that he owed money for his power bill. He had already checked to make sure his payment was up-to-date after a previous call and said he was annoyed the company was again calling him.

Distracted by the call, Hu said that he pulled into his parking lot, instead of going toward Daniel's day care, got out of the minivan and went to work.

He said that he did not remember that he'd forgotten to drop Daniel off until about 4 p.m., at which time he raced to the van and found his son dead.

According to a 2007 Associated Press report, a review of more than 300 fatal cases nationally in which children were forgotten in cars showed that prosecutions and penalties varied widely.

tplohetski@statesman.com; 445-3605