A Middletown man was charged with one count of child endangerment and for an outstanding warrant after police found a 2-year-old naked boy sitting on a couch on North Marshall Road.
Eric Mullins, 22, who lives in the 400 block of North Marshall Road, also had a bench warrant for failure to comply through the Middletown Municipal Court, according to a police report.
A family was driving on North Marshall Road at about 2:30 p.m. on Sept. 7 when they almost hit a dog in the road. That’s when they realized there was a child near the road. The boy was naked and was sitting on a couch that was put out for garbage pickup at the side of the road, the report read.
The child was dirty and he had a set of car keys, according to the report.
Mullins, who was sleeping when police knocked on the door, told police he was the boy’s father and he had worked third shift. He didn’t know how the child got out of the house. There were two other adults in an upstairs bedroom, the report read.
Police noted the inside of the residence was “dirty” and there were piles of trash throughout the house.
Police also found a small dog with an injured leg inside the home. A woman in the house told police she owned the dog, but she didn’t have enough money to get its injuries treated. An animal control officer confiscated the dog, the report read.
The child was placed with the two adults in the house after Mullins was arrested. Police were unable to make contact with Mullins’ girlfriend, the boy’s mother.
Mullins pleaded guilty to the charges and is scheduled to have a sentencing hearing Sept. 24 in Middletown Municipal Court, according to court records.
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