Man who stole car with 2-year-old girl inside heads to prison

Amazon delivery driver found girl on side of the road, strapped in car seat

Credit: Jim Noelker

Credit: Jim Noelker

A 19-year-old man who stole a car with a 2-year-old girl inside in Dayton, then left her in her car seat along a Harrison Twp. roadside before she was found by an Amazon delivery driver is headed to prison.

Derion Deandre Miliner was sentenced last week to a range of 5 to 7½ years in prison following his Nov. 25 conviction for kidnapping and grand theft of a motor vehicle, according to a release Thursday from Montgomery County Prosecutor Mat Heck Jr.

Miliner was accused of taking Bradley Wood’s 2012 Kia Optima at 4:26 p.m. Aug. 27 from the parking lot of the Marathon gas station at 201 Valley St. Inside the back seat of the car was Wood’s 2-year-old daughter, Haleigh, who was sleeping in her car seat.

An Amazon delivery driver found the girl approximately 10 minutes down the road, in some brush along the side of Adair Avenue in Harrison Twp.

Charles Rucker, who works for R&L Hero Deliver, which delivers for Amazon, spotted Haleigh still strapped in her car seat. He pulled her out to get her away from the bugs and mosquitoes and called 911. He was busy making deliveries, but stayed with the girl until police arrived.

“I’m an Amazon driver and there’s a little girl strapped into a car seat just sitting on the side on the road,” Rucker told the 911 dispatcher. “She’s not in a vehicle. She’s just sitting here on the side of the road.”

Thanks to Rucker, police reunited Haleigh with her mother, Razshae Wood.

As she held her daughter, Razshae Wood described the horror she felt after learning her daughter was missing.

“I just got a call from my husband saying the car is gone and Haleigh is asleep in the back,” she said. “He was just crying and freaking out and I was crying and freaking out … I didn’t care about the car, I just wanted my daughter to be OK,” she said. “I just thank God she’s OK.”

Credit: Montgomery County Jail

Credit: Montgomery County Jail

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