The young mother is accused of leaving her daughter, who is two years old, locked up in a hot car while she watched the new “Smurfs” movie in a movie theater with her own brothers, according to the facts provided by the police. The heat index at the time was reported to be 107 degrees.
A felony child negligence complaint has been filed against Tripura Merriex, who is 18 years old. According to the local police, she is accused of leaving her kid alone in a Cadillac Escalade from the year 2002 while she was visiting the Regal Cinema 90 located on U.S. Highway 90 in Lake City.
It was necessary for the police to break a window in order to gain access to the child when they arrived at the location after witnesses had called 911 to report Merriex on the scene.
“I applied a window break to the driver side window after observing the child in the front passenger seat,” an officer writes in the arrest report. “I was able to break the window.”
The daughter of Merriex was “visibly distressed” when the police discovered her inside the vehicle that the woman was driving. The child “had a flushed red appearance, was sweating profusely, and was crying in distress,” the officer claims, pointing out that Merriex’s daughter had been on board the Escalade for at least half an hour.
She was described as having a “very nonchalant demeanor as her child was in the locked vehicle,” according to the arrest report that Merriex got on Monday. ” She said that she “accidentally” locked her daughter inside the car, and she “acted as though the whole situation wasn’t a big deal as she just stood next to her vehicle,” according to the police.
Merriex allegedly told police that she took her daughter to see “Smurfs” together with her own brother and sister, and that while they were watching the movie, the child “kept crying loudly” and caused a “disturbance,” according to the police. Merriex stated that she brought her daughter to see the movie.
“Mrs. Merriex said that she brought [her daughter] out to the lobby to keep from disrupting other movie viewers’ experience,” according to the charges filed against her.
Merriex is said to have acknowledged to doing this “a few times” until she finally abandoned her baby in the Escalade, according to the police. When the incident occurred, the temperature was 94 degrees, and the heat index was 107, according to the police. The daughter of Merriex was described as “flushed, sweating, and crying,” as stated in a press release issued by the Lake City Police Department.
An staffer at the Regal Cinema allegedly described Merriex as appearing “very annoyed with her daughter’s crying.” This information was provided to investigators. She allegedly left the “Smurfs” show on multiple occasions in order to go out and check on the victim, as stated in the arrest report. After that, she allegedly delegated the responsibility of carrying out the assignment to her siblings.
“After a few trips of Mrs. Merriex going out to her vehicle, the other two individuals that she had come into the cinema with started alternating out on every other trip,” according to law enforcement officials.
After some time had passed, Merriex’s husband stated in interviews that she “had a history of very un-rational decision making when it came to her dealing with their daughter’s crying,” as stated in the police report for her. According to the report, he accused her of having “negative reactions to stress related to being a parent” and complaining that she had a difficult time exercising “patience” when it came to caring for the child on her own.
“Our officers acted swiftly to ensure the safety of this young child,” expressed Chief of Police Gerald Butler in a statement released on Monday. Under these circumstances, it is not permissible to leave a youngster waiting in a car without supervision. We are grateful that the youngster is not in danger, and we strongly encourage all parents to make the health and safety of their children a top priority at all times.
There is a bail of fifty thousand dollars that Merriex is now being held on at the Columbia County Jail.
