Infants Left In Car; Charges Likely

BY JEN GIBSON, Times-Union Staff Writer

Two Warsaw residents were arrested Tuesday for allegedly leaving infants alone in a car.

Eduardo Mixquitil-Huitzil, 21, of 920 Anchorage Road, Warsaw, and Jodi Jolean Phillips, 21, of 230 Roosevelt St., Warsaw, were arrested and booked into the Kosciusko County Jail just after noon Tuesday. Both were charged with neglect of a dependent and held on $2,000 bond.

According to a report from the Warsaw Police Department, employees of a staffing service on Commerce Drive, Warsaw, called police after allegedly seeing two infants left unattended in a car for at least 40 minutes.

The children, a 7-month-old boy and a 3-month-old girl, reportedly were left in infant seats in the back seat of a black 2002 Pontiac Grand Prix with the doors unlocked. The car was not running and the outside temperature was 33 degrees.

When police arrived, the children were unattended in the vehicle and they were crying.

Upon questioning, Phillips and Mixquitil-Huitzil reportedly told police they were applying for jobs at the service, but had checked on the children while inside.

Warsaw Police contacted the Kosciusko County Prosecutor’s office about the incident, and filed the charges for neglect of a dependent child.

According to the Indiana Criminal Code, neglect of a dependent is defined as “a person having the care of a dependent ... who knowingly or intentionally places the dependent in a situation that endangers the dependent’s life or health.”