ELKTON, Fla. – Deputies arrested a man in Elkton after he was found inside a parked SUV with drug paraphernalia and a 9-month-old child, according to the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office.
The arrest report said a deputy noticed an SUV with its headlights on and its engine running in the parking lot of a Quality Inn on State Road 207. Inside the SUV, a man was found asleep in the driver's seat and an infant child was found asleep in a car seat.
Chuck Mulligan of the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office noted that all the doors of the SUV were unlocked.
“It took several deputies to awaken this individual," Mulligan said. "If someone simply opened the door and removed the child, we could have a missing child case at this point and time.”
After removing the man and the child from the SUV, deputies found numerous hypodermic needles, bloody paper towels and two different types of prescription drugs, the Sheriff's Office said. The man did not have a prescription.
Deputies identified the man in the car as Michael Wayne Hull, 49, of St. Augustine, according to the arrest report. He was charged with felony child neglect, in addition to misdemeanor drug charges.
"I’m worried about my grandbaby," said Marlene Strawser, who claimed to be the child's grandmother. "I want to make sure he is here safe.”
Hull is the second person in the Jacksonville area to be charged with child neglect after investigators said they were found asleep in a car with a child. Levoy Bennett, 29, was arrested after deputies said he overdosed on narcotics inside his car with a 5-year-old in the back seat.