The Ormond Beach father accused of leaving his 18-month-old son to die in a hot truck while he got a haircut and then drank beer at a bar had been worried about the child spending time with his mother.
Scott Gardner wrote in a petition filed on April 15 that Sebastian Gardner’s mother struggled with alcohol addiction and added that it was “not a safe environment for my son.”
Gardner requested the mother, Lorena Dague, did not share custody with the child, according to his petition.
While Dague did not respond to Gardner’s petition, she did respond to a petition by the child’s grandmother last year in which she opposed her request for temporary custody.
A hearing on Gardner’s petition was set for June 19.
But by then, Sebastian had been dead for 13 days.
Sebastian Gardner left in truck on 90-degree day
Gardner left the child in a hot truck on June 6 while he went to get a haircut and then to drink alcohol at Hanky Panky’s bar in Ormond-by-the-Sea, according to a charging affidavit.
Scott Gardner in court at the S. James Foxman Justice Center in Daytona Beach on Tuesday, June 24, 2025. Gardner is accused of leaving his 18-month-old son to die in a hot truck while he went for a haircut and drank at an Ormond-by-the-Sea bar the week before.
The temperature was about 90 degrees. Gardner left the air conditioner off. He left the windows down but only a small battery powered fan on, according to law enforcement.
And instead of attending the hearing June 19, Gardner was arrested and taken into custody in connection to his son’s death.
Gardner, 33, of Ormond Beach, was charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child and child neglect causing great bodily harm.
On June 24, Circuit Judge A. Christian Miller granted Assistant State Attorney Andrew Urbanak’s request to keep Gardner locked up at the Volusia County Branch Jail without bond on pretrial detention.
Scott A. Gardner filed for paternity
Eighteen-month-old Sebastian Gardner died after being left in a hot car on June 6, 2025, while his father, Scott Gardner, got a haircut and then drank at a bar, according to the Volusia Sheriff’s Office.
In the petition for paternity, Gardner had written that Sebastian was born Dec. 16, 2023. The child was born in Hollister, Florida, according to court records.
Gardner’s petition states that Sebastian resided with the father and that Dague hadn’t seen the child since March 1.
A case management conference was scheduled for June 19 at 1 p.m. before Circuit Judge K. Janesk.
The case was still marked as open on June 24. The hearing sheet states that Gardner failed to appear.
The hearing sheet also states that mother was “not served.” A notice about the hearing sent to an address in Interlachen was stamped “Return to sender. No mail receptacle. Unable to forward.”
Mother fights grandmother’s petition
Jodi L. Thereault, who identified herself in court as Gardner’s mother, filed a “petition for temporary custody by extended family” for Sebastian on March 12, 2024. In the petition she wrote that “mom has alcohol issues. Dad had a minor issue.”
Thereault has spells her first name with a “y” on Facebook and in other documents.
Dague responded to the petition May 9, 2024, writing: “I am denying the action of petitioner Jodi L. Thereault to care for my child Sebastian Scott Gardner full time because I still obtain my parental rights and I am residing at the residential facility WARM, where my child can stay with me.”
Dague went on to write: “I had a few situations where my alcohol consumption became unmanageable, I was Marchman acted and taking responsibility for my actions and attending residential treatment at WARM.
WARM stands for Women Assisting Recovering Mothers and is located in Bunnell, according to its website.
The Marchman Act allows “for voluntary admissions and involuntary assessment, stabilization and treatment of adults and youth who are severely impaired due to substance abuse,” according to a Department of Children and Families website.
A hearing took place in Daytona Beach on May 16, 2024, in which a judge ruled that the mother take temporary custody of Sebastian at WARM. The judge also said the two sides would work out a timesharing agreement and visits at WARM. The hearing sheet indicated the mother, father and grandmother were all present.
Another hearing took place Aug. 15, 2024, on Thereault’s petition, but no one showed up and the case was dismissed.
Scott Gardner had prior arrest in Brevard Zoo incident
Gardner was arrested on June 18, 2023, on a charge of battery domestic violence, according to Brevard County court records.
Gardner told a Brevard County Sheriff’s deputy that he and Dague had been drinking prior to going to the Brevard Zoo and the two got into an argument outside the zoo. Gardner said that “Dague pushed him because she was upset and did not want to go inside with the kids,” the affidavit stated. Gardner then pushed Dague, causing her to fall and hit her head on the floor. Dague said her head was hurting.
Gardner said he had been drinking and was also upset and did not realize the force he used to push her, the affidavit stated.
The couple had been living together in a intimate relationship for 11 months, the affidavit stated.
A witness who said she saw Gardner standing above Dague and screaming at her reported the incident. The witness asked Dague if she wanted her to call the police and Dague said “she did and needed help,” the affidavit stated.
The witness said Gardner was verbally aggressive toward her, cursed and yelled at her.
Gardner entered a plea of no contest to an amended charge of battery and was adjudicated guilty on Aug. 24, 2023. As part of the plea agreement, he was placed on probation for six months and ordered not to have any unwanted contact with the victim for five months. He was sentenced to the time served of three days in the Brevard County jail.
Assistant State Attorney Andrew Urbanak told the judge about Gardner’s criminal history during the June 24 hearing. Urbanak also told the judge that Gardner had some cases from Massachusetts, including a credit card fraud and a cocaine charge in 2015. He was not convicted of those cases.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Scott Gardner, charged in son’s hot car death, wanted sole custody