A baby is ‘covered’ in heroin. A Florida dad is charged with neglect, police say
Police in the Florida city of Melbourne have arrested and charged a 28-year-old father with child neglect after they found out his 16-month-old daughter had ingested heroin.
Melbourne police say they met Nathaniel James Clay at a fire station after he rushed his baby there on Thursday when he saw that she was “covered in the brown substance” after he stepped outside a nearby home to smoke a cigarette, WKMG Click Orlando reported.
The baby girl tested positive for heroin ingestion and it took three doses of the opioid-reversal drug Narcan at the hospital to stabilize her, reports say.
The “brown substance” mentioned in the police report was found on the baby’s clothing and tested positive as heroin, WFTV9 reported.
According to the Melbourne Police Department arrest report, another man was at the house to buy drugs from Clay, though detectives said Clay told them in an interview after his arrest that the man was there to play video games. While they were outside for about two to three minutes, someone from inside the house told Clay, the baby “may have gotten into the heroin.”
Clay, the report said, got into an argument with the witness for “leaving unknown items” in the house and pointed a gun at the witness and told him he would shoot him if he told anyone.
The man left the house and later told investigators he did not want to press charges against Clay for aggravated assault with a handgun.
Clay, in his interview with detectives, also said another person named “Spaz” had come by the house and that the witness had asked “Spaz” for a ride. Clay then got his baby to the fire station, the arrest report said.
Police searched the house and property and found a small amount of marijuana, a rifle inside the trunk of a car parked outside, and swabbed a glass table inside the living room and a field test found the table had heroin on its surface.
No one was charged with drug offenses. According to court records, Clay was charged with child neglect with great bodily harm. He was released after posting $5,000 bail.
Court records also show that Clay had previous arrests in 2011 and 2012 for armed burglary, contempt of court, resisting arrest without violence, and robberies with and without firearms.
This story was originally published September 4, 2020 at 9:25 AM.
