Charges: Children lived in stink and filth, had to walk to gas station for food
The young boy, 4 years old, and his 2-year-old sister were hungry, they told an employee at the Super America they'd walked to. They were both dirty, one wearing a full diaper and shoes on the wrong feet. Their mother had left with someone, and their father was home, but drunk.
So they went to the gas station for food.
That's what the Ramsey County Attorney's Office says happened Monday around 8:30 p.m. in St. Paul, and two adults are now charged with child neglect after police found the kids' home with no electricity, stinking of feces, and with almost no edible food.
Darrell Demarrias (at right) is charged with one count of child neglect and once count of child endangerment. The charges say he was found at the kids' home on Maryland Avenue passed out, lying on a mattress on the floor with an infant lying on his arm.
All three children were given a medical check-up and turned over to a county child protection case worker.
According to the charges:
The fridge contained rotten food. Inside the kitchen, meat with small bites in it was left out. The sink was filled with empty beer cans and dirty water. The lone bathroom's toilet was filled with "piles of excrement."
Police had to shine a flashlight into Demarrias' face to wake him up. Once awake, he fell over several times while trying to stand.
Demarrias eventually became responsive enough to speak with police, and told them his girlfriend whom he lived with, Lydia Godfrey, had left around 3 p.m. and that he hadn't spoken with her. He began drinking a couple hours later and told police he thought the 11-month-old was with his girlfriend's sister, not still in the home.
He said he'd been sober until recently and had a problem with alcohol, at one point stating "this is why" he can't drink.
He was arrested.
His girlfriend, Godfrey, is charged with one count of child neglect. Authorities say they do not know where she is at this time.
The two older children told the Super America worker she had left with another man, the charges say. Demarrias told police he moved to St. Paul with Godfrey just a few weeks earlier.
