Cops: Infant, toddler left alone in truck die after it rolls into pond

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Negligent homicide charges have been filed against a 30-year-old father in the deaths of his two young children who drowned after the truck they were in rolled into a pond.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports charges were filed against Jonathan Daniel Welborn in the deaths of 2-year-old Sofia Welborn and 6-month-old Zane Welborn.

Welborn and 26-year-old Brittany Nichole Hairston also face counts of first-degree endangering the welfare of a minor.

Saline County authorities say deputies were dispatched to a house Wednesday night after Hairston reported the truck missing with the two children inside, reports CBS affiliate KTHV. Deputies found the truck submerged with its lights on in a pond across the road. Officials found the children still strapped in their car seats, unresponsive.

Deputies learned that Welborn and Hairston were playing pool inside the house when the truck rolled across the highway and into the pond. The children had reportedly been left alone for about 30 minutes.

Evidence showed that Welborn had been driving the truck with the two children inside before the incident happened, KTHV reported. He was drug-tested and admitted to smoking methamphetamine that same day, the station reports.

Both Welborn and Hairston are set to appear in court Aug. 8. Welborn is being held in the Saline County Detention Center on $100,000 bail, and Hairston is being held on $25,000 bail.