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A Tempe man and his baby-mama have each pleaded guilty to one count of child abuse after leaving their 11-month-old baby in a running bathtub earlier this year.
Initially, Summer Dawn Angelly, 23, and Jasen Anchondo, 28, pleaded not guilty to the same charge.
The couple was arrested in August after their 11-month-old son was rescued from a bathtub in a hotel room where the family’s been living.
The baby was found by his 4-year-old sister, who likely saved his life.
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According to the Tempe Police Department, rescue crews were dispatched
about 8:50 a.m. on August 5 to the Days Inn on East Apache Drive after
the baby was found in the tub.
Angelly, police say, ran out of the hotel room screaming, prompting
the hotel manager to rush to the room to see what was going on.
The manager found the baby, who wasn’t breathing. However, Anchondo insisted that the child was “OK.”
The hotel manager called 9-1-1 and took CPR direction from the dispatcher until rescue crews arrived.
The baby was taken to a local hospital, treated, and released several days later.
When the parents were interviewed by detectives, they each changed their
story about how the baby ended up in a running bathtub. Angelly
eventually came clean.
She told police the baby had soiled his diaper. Because the couple was
out of diapers, they opted to stick him in the bathtub. Then she and
Anchondo each fell asleep — with the baby in the tub and the water
still running.
They woke up when their 4-year-old daughter told them the baby was in the tub.
The family moved to Tempe from California this past summer. They’d been living with some family members before they moved into the hotel. The 11-month-old was one of four children — a 4-year-old, a 2-year-old, and the 11-month-old’s twin brother — living in the hotel room. Each of the children have since been placed with Child Protective Services.
The couple is scheduled to be sentenced on January 5.
