The Adams County Sheriff’s Office said the child was found in the median on Pecos Street near U.S. 36 in a car seat.
ADAMS COUNTY, Colo. — The one-month-old baby found abandoned in a car seat in the median of an Adams County road tested positive for cocaine, according to an arrest affidavit for the child’s parents.
Jarvis Sims, 42, and 33-year-old Christina Thurman have both been arrested on suspicion of felony child abuse, according to the Adams County Sheriff’s Office.
A woman found their baby around 8:20 a.m. on Christmas in the 7400 block of Pecos Street. She told police that she saw a couple arguing and then saw the man walk to the median where he set down a car seat and walked away.
She went to retrieve the car seat and realized a child, wearing only a diaper, was inside. She said she yelled at the man to come back and get the child, and he responded by yelling, “That’s her kid, give it to her,” the affidavit says. An apparent reference to the woman he had been arguing with.
The woman went to a nearby gas station and called her sister because she didn’t know what to do. Her sister told her to call the police, but the woman refused because she was wanted on warrants.
Her sister called 911 and drove to the scene where she took care of the child until deputies arrived. The baby was taken to a hospital for evaluation. Doctors told deputies the baby was “healthy” but said a urine test was a presumptive positive for cocaine. The baby was transferred to the custody of Human Services.
Investigators reviewed security video from the Conoco which corroborated the woman’s story – that a man placed the seat in the median.
They later were able to get in touch with the infant’s Godmother who was with Thurman and requested to meet in person at a McDonald’s.
A deputy met with Thurman. She said she arrived home at 4:30 a.m. and began arguing with Sims about her intoxication level, the affidavit says. She asked him to call her mom to pick her up to resolve the issues and then said she began walking southbound on Pecos Street.
Thurman said she was near the Highway 36 overpass when she saw Sims walking toward her with the baby in his car seat. She said she saw Sims place the child in the median, the affidavit says.
She said it appeared that Sims walked back to the infant, but said to avoid additional conflict kept walking and was picked up by her stepfather. She told investigators she assumed Sims had picked the baby up.
She told investigators she had been unable to reach Sims and could not return to her apartment because she was locked out.
Deputies went to Sims’ apartment. When he answered the door he told deputies he and Thurman had been arguing and that she wanted to go to her mom’s house. He said she began walking on Pecos and he went inside to get the baby to give to her.
He said he yelled at her to come get the baby but she refused. He admitted, according to the affidavit, that he left the baby on the sidewalk because he had to work in the morning.
He said he did not see her walk over to the baby or pick him up at any time, the document says. Despite that, he went home and slept until law enforcement knocked on his door.
Both appeared in court Thursday morning.