Dad found guilty of child endangerment for subjecting children to below-freezing temperatures (Woodstock, Virginia)

Dad JASON LEE MULLINS was apparently drunk when he got into a fight and stormed off with his two kids in below-freezing temperatures. The kids were found with hypothermia. The fight was with his in-laws. Where mom was in all this is curiously erased. Single dad or what?

http://www.nvdaily.com/news/2011/07/father-is-guilty-in-ordeal-of-children.php

Father is guilty in ordeal of children
By Preston Knight -- pknight@nvdaily.com

WOODSTOCK -- A town man has pleaded guilty in Shenandoah County Circuit Court to subjecting his young children to below-freezing temperatures following an argument with his in-laws.

Jason Lee Mullins, 32, 710 S. Water St., entered a plea agreement on two charges of child endangerment Wednesday. Sentencing will be left to the court on Oct. 5 at 1:30 p.m., and the commonwealth, as part of the deal to have him plead guilty, will not argue during that hearing.

According to Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Ken Alger, the Woodstock Police Department responded to the residence on Jan. 13 for a report that Mullins had left on foot with his children -- ages 9 and 10 -- after the argument. Alcohol was involved, he said, and the in-laws, who Mullins and his family lived with, were concerned that the children were not properly dressed.

"It was a very cold night," Alger said.

A criminal complaint states that it felt like 11 degrees outside.

Local police combed the area and a search and rescue team from Northern Virginia also was contacted to assist. Officers called Mullins' cell phone to determine where the group was, and he and his children were found in a wooded area near Lora Drive after about two hours. The children, whose shoes and pants were wet because they had walked through mud puddles, had hypothermia and were treated at Shenandoah Memorial Hospital, Alger said.

He said one of the children told the Department of Social Services that Mullins had indicated that the group was hiding from police.

The complaint states that Mullins was apprehended after running 15-20 feet away from an officer.