Left: Craig Darnell Presley (Alachua County Sheriff’s Office). Right: Chadrick Rodell Smith Jr. (ACSO).
Two Florida men were arrested after they reportedly informed police that they had ceased the search for a missing 5-year-old boy in their care, who had run away and was found just as he was about to enter a busy street.
Craig Darnell Presley, aged 52, and Chadrick Rodell Smith Jr., aged 27, were detained over the weekend. They both face charges of neglect of a child without causing great bodily harm, as indicated by court records.
Officers responding to a call near an apartment complex on September 7 encountered a child alone, heading toward a busy street, based on a probable cause affidavit sourced by Law&Crime. Nearby teenagers who were unfamiliar with the child aided officers in retrieving the boy, who they said was pulled back from the street “just before a car drove by.”
The police interacted with the boy, who could provide his name and age but not his residence. A resident from the apartment complex identified the boy and helped officers find the child’s apartment number.
The officers accompanied the boy back to the apartment, discovering five more children there. The kids spoke to the officers, explaining that the 5-year-old “often ran off” and that “the adults at home searched for him before giving up and coming back,” with “one of them even falling asleep afterward.”
While the children were conversing with the officers, Presley emerged, looking disheveled and needing to hold up his “loose pants.” Despite his appearance, Presley allegedly refuted claims of having been asleep.
Officers soon got in touch with Smith, who allegedly confirmed that he and Presley were watching the children while two adults — the child’s mother and grandmother — were grocery shopping. Smith allegedly told police that after the child ran off, he looked for him, but when he “couldn’t find him, he returned home.” The officer said Smith “appeared unbothered” by the boy’s disappearance.
Both men said they had not contacted authorities or the other adults after the child went missing, police said. When the other adults returned to the apartment, they allegedly said that they had left the children in the care of Smith and Presley for about 30 minutes before the 5-year-old was found near the road.
As the two men rode to Alachua County Jail in police custody, Presley allegedly stated that he was only looking after his own five children and was not responsible for the 5-year-old.
Presley appeared before Judge Susan Miller-Jones, who ordered him to be released on his own recognizance after he pays an undisclosed amount in owed child support. Smith, who has two previous felony convictions, is being held in lieu of $25,000 bond. It was not immediately clear when the two were next scheduled to appear in court.
Police did not disclose the defendants’ relationship to the 5-year-old boy.
