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Search warrant provides information on child’s death
By Lynn Hotaling
 A search warrant has provided additional details of the tragic events that led to the May 22 death of 8-year-old Devin Gibson in his mother’s car.
An affidavit filed with the warrant includes information obtained by Detectives Patrick McCoy and Celest Hollomon of the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office. The two officers conducted interviews with the child’s mother and the woman who rode to work with her on the day Devin died.
The boy’s mother, Michelle Gibson, has been charged with second-degree murder and child abuse in connection with his death, which preliminary autopsy reports attribute to hyperthermia, or excessiveheating. Gibson remains in the Jackson County jail in lieu of a $100,000 bond.
As reported last week, local law enforcement authorities were alerted after Gibson showed Devin’s lifeless body to her co-worker, the same woman who commuted from Asheville with her to work a double shift at Mountain Trace Nursing Center. According to the warrant, the woman, Alesia Adorno, did not know until then that Devin had been in the car when Gibson picked her up that morning at 6 a.m.
Adorno had met Gibson and her son the Friday before Devin’s death at Fuddrucker’s in Asheville because the two Stat Medical Services employees were planning to share the commute to their weekend job at Mountain Trace, the warrant said. Adorno had worked at the Sylva nursing home before and drove Gibson’s 2001 red Ford Escort sedan to the center both Saturday and Sunday since she was more familiar with the area, according to the document.
Adorno stated that, as far as she knew, she and Gibson were the only two people in the vehicle.
But Gibson’s statements to law enforcement reveal the boy was in the car both Saturday (May 21) when Gibson and Adorno worked 16 straight hours – from 7 a.m. until 11 p.m. – and Sunday, when they were scheduled to work the same shifts.
Gibson told the detectives that because she didn’t have anyone to baby sit, she placed her son in the trunk, which is accessible from the passenger compartment, the report states. Devin remained in the trunk from 5 a.m. Saturday morning until they arrived back home in Asheville around midnight, Gibson said.
The child was again placed in the car’s trunk on Sunday morning, this time at about 6 a.m. when Gibson arrived to pick up Adorno, according to the warrant.
Gibson told officers that she checked on the boy several times and that she talked to him when she went to Burger King at 11:30 a.m. to get lunch for herself and Adorno. She bought Devin a kids’ meal with a cheeseburger and french fries. Devin stayed in the trunk during the drive, she said, but the back seat was down so they could talk. Upon arriving back at Mountain Trace, Gibson said she put the back seat back up.
Gibson said she checked on the boy again around 2:30 p.m. and that he complained of being hot, the document said. She cracked the two windows on the passenger side and gave him something to drink before going back to work, the warrant states.
According to the officers’ report, Gibson said she returned to the car about 3:30 p.m. but that Devin didn’t answer when she called to him. She looked in the back seat and saw that the back seat was down and she saw him lying there. Gibson then got into the back seat and pulled her son out of the trunk and sat him up but he was neither moving or breathing, and she tried to give him CPR, the warrant states. When she got no response, Gibson knew her son was dead and she remained in the car for about 15 minutes, holding Devin and rocking him, before placing him back into the trunk and putting the seat back up, according to the officers’ report.
At that point Gibson told Adorno she needed to return to Asheville, and when Adorno said she couldn’t leave work, Gibson told her that Devin had died. Adorno initially thought the boy was in Asheville, but Gibson told her he was in the Escort’s trunk, and the two women went out to the car. Gibson lowered the back seat so Adorno could see the boy in the trunk, the warrant states.
Adorno told the officers the boy’s head felt warm and that she told Gibson to take him to the hospital, but Gibson refused, saying she wanted to go back to Asheville, the warrant says.
When Adorno went back inside Mountain Trace to call emergency personnel, Gibson drove back to Asheville. She was later located outside her apartment, cradling Devin’s body.
According to the officers’ report, Gibson said she never meant to harm her son and that he liked playing in the trunk. She told them that she had put pull-up diapers on the boy so he would be able to go to the bathroom while he was in the trunk. Gibson also told the officers that when she found her son dead it was so hot inside the car that she could barely stand it.
When the car was searched, officers found items including Burger King wrappings, a Burger King receipt dated noon on May 22, a blanket, a teddy bear and a power ranger.
During a 96-hour hearing last week, Sylva attorney Randy Seago was appointed to represent Gibson.
“She did not have any intention of hurting the child,” Seago said of his client. “The doors were not locked, and he was not locked in the trunk.”
According to Seago, Gibson did not find the boy in the trunk.
“There’s a big distinction in being in a car that has access to the trunk and being locked in the trunk,” Seago said. “That’s the point I want people to understand.”
Seago declined comment on the search warrant and its narrative of the events leading to Devin’s death, saying that he had not yet seen the document.
A probable cause hearing is scheduled in Jackson County District Court for Tuesday, June 7, Seago said.
Funeral services for Devin Gibson were held Tuesday at Nazareth First Baptist Church in Asheville. Michelle Gibson was not permitted to attend, but she was taken to Asheville Monday by Jackson County deputies for a private viewing of her son’s body and a brief meeting with close family members.
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