A Tomball woman has been charged with felony injury to a child nearly two years after allegedly leaving her infant son in a hot van for nine hours while on a drinking binge.

Jennifer Chastain, 29, was charged by the Harris County District Attorney’s office on Aug. 19 with injury to a child with serious bodily injury. Chastain faces anywhere from two to 99 years in prison, if convicted.

Harris County Assistant District Attorney Scott Durfee said his office would not comment on why it took nearly two years before charges were filed on Chastain. Durfee cited this as a continuing investigation.

“The important fact is that we did file the case and we now believe we have sufficient evidence,” he said.

Durfee went on to say that the reason the District Attorney’s office decided to charge Chastain with injury to a child rather than manslaughter, was because the burden of proof in child injury cases is less than the burden of proof in manslaughter cases.

“Homicide cases, whether murder, manslaughter or whatever it may be, the reason we file them that way is that the punishment is similar to the other charges, but the burden of proof is less,” Durfee said.

Documents used to charge Chastain claim that she found her son, Nathaniel Nichols in her van dead the evening of Sept. 28.

The charging statement goes on to say that after Chastain took Nichols to the hospital that night, Det. S. Miller, of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, spoke with Harris County Pct. 4 deputies, who told him that Nathaniel had, “suffered external injuries consisting of blisters and bruises.”

Harris County Assistant Medical Examiner Dr. Morna Gonsoulin later ruled Nathaniel died due to environmental heat exposure. She ruled his death a homicide.

During Miller’s interview with Chastain he alleges that she admitted to drinking the night before.

“She stated that she began drinking alcohol on the evening of Sunday, Sept. 27, 2009, because she was upset that her husband, Mark Nichols had left to work out of town for a month,” the statement says. “She recalled placing the infant in his crib on (Sept. 27) night, but has no memory (of the following day).”

“She believes that around 8 or 9 p.m. (on Sept. 28) her husband called and woke her up and asked her where Nathaniel was and she told him she did not know,” the statement reads. “She then went to her van to start driving around looking for the baby when she saw him in the backseat, still strapped in the car seat.”

Chastain’s 16-year old stepdaughter told investigators that Chastain drove her to school late the morning of Sept. 28 and Nathaniel was strapped in his car seat. When the stepdaughter returned from school she found Chastain intoxicated.

A search of Harris County court records shows that Chastain was convicted of driving while intoxicated in 2006 and driving on a suspended license in 2007.

The report estimates that Nathaniel was strapped inside the van from about 10 a.m. until around 7 p.m.

Chastain is now free on $30,000 bond. Her arraignment was Sept. 1.

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