Dayton woman arrested for leaving children in hot car while gambling
Submitted by Arianna Schmidt on Fri, 07/09/2021 - 1:03pm
A 37-year-old Dayton woman was arrested at a casino on E. William Street for three counts of child neglect and endangerment.
According to the report, a Carson City Sheriff’s Office patrol deputy was called to a child welfare check at a local hotel-casino. An off-duty Nevada Highway Patrol (NHP) officer had found two small children outside of the casino’s front doors, later reporting these two children and a third were left unattended in a vehicle for approximately five hours.
The deputy arrived on-scene to be informed that the 7-year-old and 5-year-old children were found by the NHP officer sitting alone on a bench in front of the casino. Later, a third 4-year-old child was found to have been left in the vehicle who had wet hair and was visibly sweating.
The deputy introduced himself and brought the two children inside to the front desk. Soon after, a woman approached the front desk and stated the two boys were her children. The third child remained left in the vehicle.
The woman explained to the deputy that she has five children in total. The woman took her children to the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno to visit her father and her brother who was visiting from Colorado.
She stated that her brother took two of the children to Dayton with him and she took the other three.
On her way home, the woman stopped to participate in their free-play gambling games.
According to the report, the woman left her three children in the vehicle with only the sunroof and back right window cracked for ventilation. The woman estimated she was in the casino between 45 minutes to an hour.
The woman claimed she was not drinking and did not meet with anyone.
Casino surveillance footage shows the woman entering the casino at 9:48 p.m. and leaving the building at 11:05 p.m. The deputy brought the children into the front desk at 11:03 p.m. and the woman arrived there at 11:07 p.m.
According to the Weather Channel website, the recorded temperature was 84 degrees at 9:55 p.m., the report states. The deputy reported feeling the warmth of the nighttime despite the light breeze.
While a preliminary breath test was not taken of the woman, another officer and NHP officer reported the smell of alcohol on her breath.
A social worker from the Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS) arrived on-scene at approximately 12:27 a.m. and spoke with each child individually.
Additional officers, including a canine unit, arrived on-scene and performed an exterior sniff on the woman’s vehicle, which yielded a negative result.
The woman was taken into custody without incident.
All information for the crime log (unless otherwise noted) comes from the arrest reports supplied by the Carson City Sheriff's Office, and is considered by law to be public information. All subjects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. The policy of Carson Now is to name anyone who is arrested for a felony offense.
