Dad jailed on child abandonment charges (Cameron, Texas)

We reported on dad IGNACIO CASTILLO just recently, but this article adds interesting new details. Apparently Dad just just got "tired of babysitting" when he abandoned the kids (age 2 and 10 months) at his house and drove 30 miles away to an auto part store. It is not clear here that the teen mother even lives at the Dad's home.

Can't we just admit that most 18- and 19-year-old guys are into cars and not into kids, and not push childcare on them that they are not willing or able to do? Or is that just too politically incorrect? Seems to me that the children need to be with Grandma or some other competent caretaker, and not with a late adolescent father.

http://www.tdtnews.com/story/2009/8/18/60049

Cameron man jailed on child abandonment charges
by Jeanne Williams Cameron Writer Published: August 19, 2009

CAMERON - Ignacio Castillo, 19, of Cameron was jailed on charges of abandoning and endangering a child after he left his 2-year-old son and 10-month-old daughter at home alone because he was “tired of baby-sitting,” Cameron Police Chief Patrick Guffey said.

The children are in the custody of their mother, a C.H. Yoe High School senior, but Texas Department of Family and Protective Services officer Robert Hollas is investigating the case and has prohibited Castillo from being alone with the children, Guffey said.

Marissa Gonzales, spokeswoman for Family Protective Services in Arlington, said cases of “neglectful supervision” are all too common, and if charges are filed, a district judge typically will order parents to undergo parenting classes.

Locally, Child Protective Services officers will come up with a plan to keep children safe, and will work with families to help them find child care options, she said.

Lt. Kris Stringer said Castillo, also known as “Nacho,” told investigators he was tired of baby-sitting, and did not want to take care of the children.

The incident occurred Sunday afternoon after he was unable to recruit his grandmother to baby-sit, Stringer said. He left them alone in the house and drove to Temple to buy an auto part, Stringer said.

When he told the children’s mother that he had left their children home alone, she called her mother, who visited the house, saw her grandson standing on the front lawn holding a steak knife, and called police, Stringer said.

The children were unsupervised for 45 minutes to an hour, Stringer said. It was unclear Tuesday when the father returned home.

Police charged Castillo with two counts of second-degree felony abandoning and endangering a child in Justice of the Peace O.C. “Chip” Dunsmoor’s court. He was jailed in lieu of a $20,000 bail. He remained in the Milam County Jail on Tuesday.

Stringer said he had worked as a Cameron police officer for 10 years and had never heard of a case where a parent “just walked off” and left his young children alone and unsupervised.

Milam County District Attorney Kerry Spears said she has never prosecuted a similar case of child abandonment or endangerment. If convicted Castillo could face two to 20 years in prison, because under the statute, actions described in the charge would be defined as a second-degree felony, if a person knowingly and intentionally abandons children under unreasonable circumstances, Mrs. Spears said.