UPDATE: Two Charged With Endangering Children With Methamphetamine
One woman and one man were arrested for child endangerment with methamphetamine, and another man was charged with interference with a peace officer, according to charging documents filed with Natrona County Circuit Court.
Amber Carpin, 27, and Shane Connely, 31, heard the with three felony counts of child endangerment with methamphetamine during their initial appearance before Natrona County Circuit Court Judge Steve Brown on Friday.
Carpin also was charged with one misdemeanor count of possession of marijuana.
Carpin and Connely did not enter pleas because of the felony charges, and they will have preliminary hearings within a few weeks to determine whether their cases will be bound over to district court for trial.
Assistant District Attorney Nathan Shumway said he could not find a prior record for Carpin but asked Brown to impose a $20,000 bond because of the seriousness of the charges and that the infant, less than a month old, tested positive for methamphetamine.
Carpin also said she had never been charged with a crime before.
Brown set her bond at $10,000, and ordered her to have no contact with her children except through the Wyoming Department of Family Services.
Shumway said Connely had previous felony convictions. Brown set Connely's bond at $15,000.
The third defendant, Joseph Murphy, was originally charged with two counts of child endangerment with methamphetamine and one misdemeanor count of interference with a peace officer, but Shumway said the child endangerment charges were dropped.
Murphy pleaded guilty to the interference charge. Brown sentenced him to a suspended one year jail sentence, one year of supervised probation and ordered him to take an evaluation for alcohol and substance abuse.
Brown also ordered him to have no contact with the children. Shumway said after the hearing that Murphy is the father of the oldest of Carpin's children, Connely is the father of the youngest child, and it's unclear who is the father of the middle child.
The case began about 1:30 p.m. Thursday when Casper Police responded to a call from the DFS to the defendants' residence in the 1400 block of East Second Street, according to the charges in the affidavits and court testimony Friday.
DFS wanted police help to check on a new born child who was found to have methamphetamine her body at birth..
Carpin had missed her first appointment with her doctor.
Murphy, 29, who said he had been homeless, lived with them in the basement of the house.
While in Carpin's and Connely's bedroom, an officer saw a glass pipe with suspected marijuana residue, and a pen shaft with suspected methamphetamine residue, and other objects with drugs or drug residue.
Carpin denied the glass pipe in the bedroom was hers. The pen shaft was hers and she told police "she used it to snort prescription medication," according to the affidavit.
Officers found controlled substance paraphernalia or reside amounts in four separate areas of the house.
An officer spoke with Murphy, who lied by giving him a false name. That resulted in the interference charge. One of his children was watching television four feet from a cellophane wrapper with suspected methamphetamine residue.
The Department of Family Services took custody of the children.