HS woman pleads guilty to endangering children
A local woman arrested last summer on felony child endangerment charges after her two toddlers were found playing naked in the road and her 9-month-old was left alone in the yard pleaded guilty to reduced charges Monday.
Heaven Lea Edgin, 22, who lists no prior criminal history, pleaded guilty in Garland County Circuit Court to three misdemeanor counts of first-degree endangering the welfare of a minor, each punishable by up to one year in jail, and
was sentenced to six months in jail, with the entire sentence suspended, fined $750 and ordered to pay $190 in court costs.
Edgin was “a young mother with three very young kids,” ages 3 and younger, at the time of the incident, Deputy Prosecutor Shana Alexander, told The Sentinel-Record Tuesday.
“She immediately began working with (Department of Human Services) and, in fact, by the time our office got the file on the case she had the kids back,” she said.
Alexander said DHS sent prosecutors a letter on Edgin’s behalf, saying she had gone “above and beyond” all that was required of her and was really doing well. “She cleaned up her house and got her kids into First Step,” she said.
She said they delayed the case a year to see how she would do and had agreed to reduce the charge if she did well.
Edgin could have faced up to six years in prison on the original felony charges filed after she was arrested on Aug. 9, 2019. She was released later that same day on a $7,500 bond and pleaded not guilty to the charges on Nov.
18, 2019.
According to the probable cause affidavit, on Aug. 9, a woman said she was waved down by the driver of another vehicle because of two naked children, ages
2 and 3, playing unsupervised in the roadway near a residence in the 200 block of Fairwood Circle.
The woman walked toward the residence trying to find a parent and found a third child, 9 months old, lying at the base of the porch, which was approximately 3 foot in height with four steps.
She noted the baby was “in the middle of knee-high grass among tools, trash and sticker bushes.” She said she knocked on the door and yelled for a parent, but no one responded, so she called the Garland County Sheriff’s Department.
Deputy Justin Parker and Cpl. Clayton Green responded to the residence and noted all three children were “covered from head to toe with dirt.” They knocked on the open front door and yelled for a resident, but received no response.
Parker states they went in for “welfare purposes” and announced themselves but still got no response. Parker entered the master bedroom and found a woman, who identified herself as Edgin, on the bed and she admitted she was the mother of the three children.
The affidavit notes neighbors provided the children with pullups, snacks and water. When asked about formula for the baby, Edgin stated she didn’t have a bottle for him. A neighbor retrieved her own bottle to give to the infant.
Upon entering the residence, Parker noted a “very strong odor of ammonia and urine” and that the interior was “filthy, hot and had no lights.” He said the floors were covered in trash with dozens of cockroaches canvassing the floor, walls and countertops. There were trash bags on the floor with trash and liquid scattered about and “dirty, cockroach-covered dishes and clothing.” He also noted there were loose electrical cords on the floor.
LifeNet and Department of Human Services personnel responded to check the children who were taken into custody by DHS. A report was later filed with the Arkansas State Police Child Abuse Hotline.