3-year-old child found wandering streets, babysitter arrested

IVINS – A 3-year-old boy is home safe and his babysitter has been arrested after the child was found wandering alone near the Southern Utah Veterans Home in Ivins Sunday afternoon.

The boy was found in the road on 200 East at about 250 North by a passerby, who took the child to the fire station, Santa Clara-Ivins Police Department spokesman Chad Holt said.

Charity Garcia, of Ivins, Utah, booking photo posted Oct. 18, 2015 | Photo courtesy of the Washington County Sheriff"s Office, St. George News
Charity Garcia, of Ivins, Utah, booking photo posted Oct. 18, 2015 | Photo courtesy of the Washington County Sheriff”s Office, St. George News

Firefighters contacted police about the child at 5:32 p.m. Two police officers then spent nearly an hour searching for the child’s parents.

“Our officers went above and beyond … knocking door-to-door to find these parents,” Holt said.

After the parents were found, it was discovered that the boy had been left with a babysitter while the parents went out, Holt said. The babysitter, 56-year-old Charity Garcia, of Ivins, was subsequently arrested.

“Miss Garcia is being charged with child abandonment and being booked into the Washington County Jail,” Holt said.

“Hopefully you trust people to watch your children,” Holt said. “It’s not the parents’ fault or anything like that … the babysitter was very irresponsible with her actions, and unfortunately this is the result of that.”

Alcohol is suspected to be a factor, Holt said.

According to court documents, Garcia was booked into the Washington County Purgatory Correctional Facility Sunday and charged with one Class B misdemeanor of reckless child abuse.

Garcia was released on $680 bail and arraignment is set for Oct. 27 in the Santa Clara Justice Court.

Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.

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4 Comments

  • RealMcCoy October 21, 2015 at 5:05 pm

    So if she had left that kid locked in a car and killed him, she would have been better off? How messed up can the Southern Utah courts be??
    #fundraiser this poor lady and drop the charges already!

    • Rainbow Dash October 22, 2015 at 9:38 pm

      Utah: The ONLY state where being a card carrying member of the MORMON church will not only get you out of jail, but rich as well. I suspect that if we were to open the Mormon cult membership records, this women is either NOT A MEMBER or behind on her tithe, unlike that “woman” who baked her baby in Hurricane.

  • ladybugavenger October 22, 2015 at 10:08 pm

    They threw in alcohol may be a factor to justify the arrest. So as long as alcohol is not a factor and drugs are not involved and you go to Mormon church every Sunday, you can forget your kid in a hot car and if it dies you won’t get charged, and you’ll get a fundraiser too

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