Mother arrested for endangering minors after child wanders into restaurant alone
A local woman on parole was arrested on felony child endangerment charges Saturday after one of her two minor children allegedly wandered into a local restaurant alone.
Felicia Lattice Felty, 35, alias Felicia Murray, who lists a Laser Street address, was taken into custody shortly before 2:30 p.m. and charged with two counts of first-degree endangering the welfare of a minor, each punishable by up to six years in prison, and also had a warrant for failure to appear.
Felty was being held on a $6,000 bond and was set to appear Monday in Garland County District Court. According to court records, she was previously convicted on Aug. 12, 2015, of manslaughter in connection with the Aug. 22, 2012, beating death of a man at a Hot Springs motel and sentenced to 10 years in prison, but was later paroled.
According to the probable cause affidavit, shortly after 1 p.m. Saturday, Hot Springs police Officer Aaron Combs responded to Waffle House, 2017 Central Ave., after a
3-year-old boy walked into the restaurant alone.
An employee said the boy had walked in without a parent and “did not know where he was.” The employee reportedly stated “this type of incident” has occurred before and the children were returned to guardians on Kentucky
Street.
Officers went to the address on Kentucky to try to make contact with a parent or guardian and while they were in the area, a male approached them and asked if they had seen any children in the area. Officers determined the male was the older brother of the boy they had found.
The male stated he had found another male child left by their mother that had reportedly been wandering in the 2000 block of Central and was taken by an unknown person from there to an address at 412 Laser St. that was vacant. The brother had found him there and then started looking for his other brother.
While officers were talking with the older brother, the mother of the children, identified as Felty, approached the officers. She reportedly stated she had been at 412 Laser with the two boys when she got in an argument with their father and he had left the area, leaving her there with the two children.
Felty reportedly stated she was “upset over the argument” and also left the area, leaving the children on the porch at 412 Laser. The man she had been arguing with also approached officers and reportedly corroborated Felty’s story.
The affidavit notes at the time Felty left the two children alone it was approximately 101 degrees outside and the one child was located 0.4 miles from 412 Laser and “had to cross a busy highway with high traffic volume” to get where he was found. The other child was located 0.3 miles from 412 Laser and was not wearing a shirt.
After further investigation, Felty was arrested on the endangering charges and the failure to appear warrant.