A woman and a man from Holts Summit were arraigned Friday in Fulton on felony child endangerment and illegal drug use charges after the woman's infant child was found dead on Wednesday, the day after both admitted using meth.
Bound over for a Callaway County Associate Circuit Court hearing at 9 a.m. July 13 were the child's mother, Megan Ayers, 30, and her boyfriend, Bryan Sartor, 23, both of Lot 10 of 964 South Summit Drive in Holts Summit.
Ayers and Sartor were both represented by the Callaway County Public Defender's Office.
At the request of Public Defender Justin Carver a bond reduction study for Sartor was ordered by Callaway County Associate Circuit Judge Carol England.
Sartor and Ayers are both in Callaway County Jail on $25,000 bond.
In a sworn statement, Lt. Bryan Reid of the Holts Summit Police Department said Sartor called the 911 Callaway County Emergency Operations Center at 11:07 a.m. Wednesday saying a two-year child was blue and not breathing. Reid said Sartor told the 911 center that the child was "beyond any help."
But Reid said when emergency personnel arrived they learned that the two-year-old girl in the house was fine but a nine-month-old infant boy was not.
When Holts Summit Police officers arrived, the mother, Ayers, and her boyfriend, Sartor, were outside.
Emergency personnel attended the infant child, who was declared deceased.
The infant was found in a playpen type enclosure with a half empty bottle, a stuffed animal and a heavy purple blanket. Reid said there were red marks on the baby's face on the right side near the upper cheek and around the right eye. There also was a red mark below the infant's lower lip.
"We are currently awaiting an autopsy for the cause of these markings on the face," Reid said. "When personnel from the medical examiner's office arrived on the scene I entered the house with them and as they were photographing the body I was advised that the child's stomach was possibly bloated and there was a green tint to the skin. I was told that this was an indictor of decomposition and that the child probably had been deceased for quite some time."
The cause of death of the infant and autopsy results are not expected to be known for several weeks.
Reid said while interviewing the mother and her boyfriend, both stated they had put the infant down for bed sometime between 10 and 11 p.m.
The lieutenant said Sartor told him that when he got up the next day he checked on the children. The two-year-old girl was awake and watching television. But the infant was on his back and was not breathing and was blue. Reid said Sartor told him this occurred at about 11:05 a.m., just prior to the 911 call.
Reid said this indicated "by their own admission the infant had not been checked on in over 12 hours."
Reid said both Sartor and Ayers admitted to using methamphetamine on the previous day. He said Ayers told him they used meth at about 11 a.m. the previous day and Sartor said they had used meth "around noon" the previous day on Wednesday.
Reid said both admitted still having meth in the house as well as paraphernalia for preparing and injecting meth.
Reid said Sartor handed a Holts Summit detective a glass container that had three needles, a spoon and one baggy containing a white powder substance, one baggy containing a brown powder substance and one empty baggy.
The substance, Reid said, later field tested positive for meth. Three Holts Summit police officers conducted a consent search of the residence and found a spoon with meth in it, a plastic baggy with meth, a baggy with marijuana, and paraphernalia rolling papers. The baggy of meth and spoon were located in the dryer, which Reid said was easily accessible to the two-year-old girl.
Sartor and Ayers were taken to Callaway County Jail and the two-year-old girl was placed into protective custody by workers from the Children's Division of the Missouri Department of Social Services.
Callaway County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Casey L. Clevenger filed two identical felony charges and one misdemeanor charge against both Sartor and Ayers.
Clevenger based her first-degree felony endangering the welfare of a child charge against both suspects on the fact that they "knowingly acted in a manner that created a substantial risk to the life, body and health of a two-year-old child staying at 964 South Summit Drive, Lot No. 10, Holts Summit, by having methamphetamine in the residence which was accessible to the child."
Clevenger also charged both with felony possession of methamphetamine, a controlled substance, knowing of its presence and nature.
The prosecutor also charged both with misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia with intent to use, including "three syringes and a spoon."
Police reported Sartor is the boyfriend of Ayers. Sartor is not the father of the deceased child. The father of the dead nine-month-old child has been notified, Police reported.
Court records show neither Ayers nor Sartor had been arrested previously for drug violations or violent crimes.
This is the first arrest for Ayers. Sartor has only traffic violations and he pleaded guilty in 2007 to being a minor visibly intoxicated and was fined $500 and $850 in costs.