Couple admits drug use near child
Towamencin woman to serve probation after her guilty plea
NORRISTOWN » A Towamencin woman and a Philadelphia man face court supervision for endangering their 6-year-old son by exposing him to drug activity in a Norristown residence littered with drug paraphernalia, feces and urine.
Nicole Stinger, 30, of the 400 block of Clemens Road, Towamencin, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to four years’ probation after she pleaded guilty to charges of endangering the welfare of a child in connection with a January 2017 incident in Norristown. Judge Gail A. Weilheimer said Stinger will be under addict supervision while serving the sentence.
The judge said if Stinger fully complies with the terms of supervision, then probation can be terminated at the conclusion of the third year.
Dennis Murphy Jr., 28, whose last known address was along Delmar Street in Philadelphia, was sentenced by Judge Wendy G. Rothstein to one month already served to 23 months in the county jail, to be followed by one year of probation, after he pleaded guilty to child endangerment charges in connection with the same incident in Norristown.
An investigation began about 6 a.m. Jan. 21, 2017, when Norristown police came into contact with the 6-year-old son of Stinger and Murphy at a residence in the 100 block of West Airy Street,
according to court papers. Police found drug paraphernalia, including hypodermic needles and more than 100 empty packets commonly used to package heroin, in a bedroom occupied by Stinger, Murphy and the child, the arrest affidavit alleged.
“There was no running water in the residence. There were containers of urine in the bedroom closet where (the child) had been with his parents and outside the bedroom door was a bag of feces,” former Norristown Detective Kathleen Kelly, now a county detective, alleged in the arrest affidavit.
Child social workers took emergency custody of the child, court papers indicate. The child was interviewed by child social workers and detectives during the investigation.
The child disclosed he observed Stinger and Murphy “give themselves needles in their necks” after mixing white powder with water in the needles, according to the criminal complaint.
“(The child) stated his parents would then hold their breath and inject the ‘water’ into their necks,” said Kelly.
The child told detectives he observed Stinger and Murphy engage in the activity numerous times at the Norristown residence as well as at Stinger’s Towamencin residence.
“(The child) also stated he has touched the tip of a hypodermic needle with his finger and it hurt him,” Kelly alleged, adding the child also revealed observing
Stinger and Murphy smoke marijuana. “(The child) stated that he feels very scared when his parents use needles in their necks and scared and angry when his parents smoke ‘weed.’”
Court documents indicate child social workers and probation officials will control the contact between Stinger and Murphy and the child victim during the course of the defendants’ court supervision.