Amherst man guilty of involuntary manslaughter in boy’s death

Brian Lee Dalton, 33, was charged after the July 31, 2025, incident, where Amherst County sheriff’s deputies responded to 5005 S. Amherst Highway in Madison Heights and found a child in a vehicle who wasn’t breathing. The Amherst County Sheriff’s Office said Dalton was custodian and uncle of Hudley Owen Hamlett, and left his sister’s son in the back of the vehicle for most of the day.

Medical units transported Hudley, who would have turned 2 years old Aug. 2, 2025, to Lynchburg General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 4:40 p.m. July 31, Sheriff Jimmy Ayers said. During the course of the investigation, it was determined Dalton failed to drop the child off at daycare that morning, took the child to work with him and left him in the back seat of the car, where the child remained unattended, Ayers said.

When Dalton got off work that afternoon, he went to the daycare to pick the child up and was told the child had not been dropped off that morning, Ayers said. The sheriff has said the child was left unattended for eight to nine hours.

Amherst County Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Amber Drumheller said emergency medical service and healthcare workers worked to save the toddler, but couldn’t. The cause of death was hyperthermia, Drumheller said.

Drumheller said the morning of July 31 Dalton told Amherst Sheriff’s Investigator Clay Thompson it was a typical morning getting the child ready for daycare and strapping him into the vehicle. Drumheller said shortly after 6:30 a.m. that day on the way to work, while at a convenience store, Dalton experienced a panic attack and failed to drop Hudley off at daycare.

Dalton checked into work at Lynchburg shortly before 7 a.m. that day, Drumheller said.

Later that afternoon, when arriving at the daycare, Dalton realized the child was left in the vehicle and he yelled an expletive when opening the door, Drumheller said.

The high temperature that day was 91 degrees, Drumheller said. The vehicle was at 125 degrees to 135 degrees with a spike of 140 degrees, Drumheller said.

Hudley was in foster care at the time of his death through the department of social services, according to Drumheller.

Rebecca Wetzel, Dalton’s attorney, said at an August 2025 bond hearing in Amherst Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court that Dalton had a “mental lapse” when he drove straight to work with Hudley in the back of the vehicle that morning instead of taking the child to daycare. Dalton was granted bond on Aug. 6, 2025.

Dalton had served as Hudley’s foster parent since February 2025, according to evidence presented at the bond hearing. A veteran who served in the U.S. Army, Dalton has lived in the Lynchburg area most of his life, Wetzel said at that hearing.

At Wednesday’s plea hearing, Wetzel said the case is an “extreme tragedy”, and the defense will have more to say at the sentencing. The wording was amended in a child abuse and neglect that shows it wasn’t willful, Wetzel said.

Wetzel said the incident was “a horrible accident that does amount to a criminal offense” and she feels it was in Dalton’s best interests to enter the pleas.

Judge Jeff Bennett found Dalton guilty on both charges and set sentencing for 9 a.m. Nov. 10. Dalton remains free on bond.