Warren Police find two-year-old living in 'deplorable' apartment
A couple is in legal trouble after Warren police say they left their two-year-old son alone in an apartment that one officer describes as “in such an utter and completely deplorable condition that it personally ranks in the top five worst places to inhabit in over thirty years of Law Enforcement.”
Neighbors called police when they say they heard a two-year-old boy crying and knocking on a door and hanging out of the window of an apartment on Roberts Ave. NW after his parents had left at around 9 p.m. Thursday.
Witnesses say the parents returned a short time later, but then left again, only to return after another short period.
When police couldn’t get anyone to answer the door, they got a building manager to open the door where they found 26-year-old Brianna Daye, 30-year-old Jerami Wells, and their two-year-old son.
The following transcript of the police report narrative describes conditions police found inside the apartment:
While walking through the apartment to the rear bedroom for the female and child to get dressed, I was in awe with what I was seeing.
Immediately when officers opened that door, the swarms of gnats and flies could be seen all throughout the kitchen area. A shopping cart was placed at the doorway full of garbage. In the living room there was a puddle of a clear liquid on the floor.
As we walked down the hallway, I had to maneuver around a tv, sweeper, blankets, and other miscellaneous items piled in the hallway.
Standing in the hallway I could see into the two bedrooms and the bathroom. Large amounts of gnats and flies filled every room. Both bedrooms, one that appeared to be the child’s, had rotting food and garbage on the floor and furniture. In the doorway of the child’s room was a half-eaten apple that was now black with mold.
In both rooms, you could see bugs flying and crawling on the beds. In the bedroom that the female was getting dressed in and the child had been watching tv, the floor was covered in clothes and garbage. As the female dressed the child, she grabbed random items thrown about and would smell them before putting them on the child.
Food was rotting into the carpet.
While walking out of the apartment, I noticed a kitchen knife lying on the floor.
As police escorted the couple to the car, an officer says Daye spit in the face of one of the neighbors, resulting in an assault charge being filed against her.
Both Daye and Wells pleaded not guilty to charges of child endangering and obstructing official business during their court arraignment on Friday.
Neither are allowed to have contact with the child without court approval. The boy is being cared for by Trumbull County Children’s Services.
Both are due back on court later.