"Primary caretaker" drug addict dad charged with felony child neglect, 3 1/2-month-old infant boy dead (Wayne, West Virginia)

Oh god, I'm so so sick of daddies who call themselves "primary caretakers" when they're basically unemployed drug addicts who don't do sh**. Of course, Mom was employed (forced into being the family breadwinner) and she fed the twin babies early in the morning (about 7 AM) before leaving for work. Daddy dragged his @$$ out of bed around 9 AM, and admits he never once checked on the babies between 7 AM and 3 PM. Didn't change their diapers, pick them up, nothing. Daddy's papa checked on the babies around 8 AM. Daddy's mama came by to feed them at 11 AM (since Daddy was too lazy to bother with such things), so apparently both babies were okay then. Daddy's mama then left and didn't come back till 2.

So what was Daddy doing all day since he apparently doesn't work (or work much)? Oh, at some point he left home to get some ice cream (leaving the babies at home alone?), and during that time he admitted snorting a little Roxycontin (similar to Oxycontin). Later, he tested positive for opiates too. Not till Daddy's mama came by the second time did they realize that there was a problem with one of the babies, with 911 being called at 3:36. Apparently the baby had died hours before help was sought.

Once again, we need decent maternity leaves and family policies. And no child "needs" a daddy like this one. Sorry. They just don't.

http://dailymail.com/News/200912140652

Tuesday December 15, 2009
Father charged with child neglect
3-month-old likely died hours before help was called, police say
by Ashley B. Craig
Daily Mail staff

WAYNE, W.Va. -- Investigators say the man accused in the death of his infant son in Wayne County failed a drug test and that the child, a twin, likely died hours before help was called.

Wayne County sheriff's deputies arrested Delton Shane Collins, 30, of Wayne Sunday evening. He has been charged with felony child neglect resulting in death.

Delton Dustin Dakota Collins, the 3 1/2-month-old son of Delton Collins and Dusti Crabtree of Ironton, Ohio, died Friday in Wayne County, where his grandparents live, according to an obituary listing in the Huntington Herald Dispatch.

Cpl. S.G. Poff was dispatched Friday afternoon to Cabell Huntington Hospital to investigate the unexplained death of a 3-month-old boy.

The boy's father had called for help at 3:36 p.m. Friday when his mother, Mary Pinson, noticed there was something wrong with the infant, according to a complaint filed in Wayne Magistrate Court.

Doctors at the hospital told investigators the baby's body temperature was 87.5 degrees, indicating a "much earlier" time of death than the 911 call, the complaint said.

Paramedics told the coroner that rigor mortis already had begun to set in the infant's jaw when they arrived on the scene, according to the complaint. The coroner told deputies it takes about four hours for rigor mortis to take effect in infants, the complaint said.

Initially suspecting Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, investigators went to the Pinson home on Big Creek Road where the child was believed to have died. There, Collins told deputies that he had had a drug problem with Oxycodone but was in a drug treatment program and had been prescribed Suboxone, a drug used to treat those with opiate addictions, according to the complaint.

"He stated that he was clean and had not been using Oxycodone," Poff, the deputy, wrote in the complaint.

A Child Protective Services worker later asked the man to take a drug test, which he failed, testing positive for oxycodone and opiates, deputies said. Collins told deputies before the test results came back that he had taken Roxycontin, similar to Oxycodone, earlier in the day, the complaint said.

Collins told officers that the infant's mother, Dusti Crabtree, fed the infant and his twin sister at 7 a.m. and left for work, and that his father, Clyde Pinson, checked on the infants at 8 a.m. before leaving for work, deputies said.

Collins said he got out of bed at 9 a.m. and his mother came home at 11 a.m. to feed both children before leaving again, returning about 2 p.m. to start getting ready for a birthday party, the complaint said.

Collins told deputies he left the home to pick up ice cream and snorted a Roxycontin in his pickup truck, according to the complaint. He realized he had forgotten his cell phone and credit card and went back into the home to get them, deputies said.

At that time his mother, Mary Pinson, had picked up the boy and said to Collins, "Oh God, Shane, there is something wrong with him," the complaint said.

Pinson immediately began performing CPR on the child while Collins called for help at 3:36 p.m., according to the complaint.

Collins told deputies he had not picked up his son or checked his diaper between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. and believed the boy died shortly after the 11 a.m. feeding, deputies wrote in the complaint.

Collins told the coroner he was the primary caregiver for the children while Crabtree was working, which was about 50 percent of the time.

Deputies said Collins' mother had worked the previous night and had gotten little sleep in the previous 48 hours, according to the complaint.

The infant's body was sent to the office of the State Medical Examiner for an autopsy. The coroner and investigating Child Protective Services worker told deputies it was their opinion that there was probable cause to believe that Collins neglected his son, resulting in his death, the complaint said.

Collins is being held at Western Regional Jail. His bond was set at $100,000.

A funeral service will be held for the child at Phillips Funeral Home in Ironton, Ohio, at noon Wednesday. A visitation will be held two hours beforehand.