Colorado judge calls mother accused of leaving baby in median on Christmas a "danger to your son"
The Colorado parents accused of abandoning their 6-week-old baby in a car seat wearing only a diaper on a median on Christmas appeared in court on Thursday.
In court, Adams County Judge Jacque Lyn Russell said 33-year-old Christina Thurman was a "danger to your son -- both physical and emotional danger to your son." Thurman and her boyfriend, 42-year-old Jarvis Sims, are facing child abuse charges after Sims allegedly left their baby boy on the median in Adams County near 7490 Pecos Street, just north of Highway 36 and close to Denver's northern city limits.
According to an arrest report, investigators said the baby also tested positive for having cocaine in his system.
The incident allegedly started with an argument between Sims and Thurman early Wednesday. A witness told investigators she saw the couple arguing and then saw a man place a car seat on the median. She approached the car seat to find a baby strapped inside. She yelled to the man to come back and get his baby, but said he shouted back, "that's her kid, give it to her!"
The witness called her sister, saying she didn't want to call police because of her own active arrest warrant. That witness took the baby to her home and stayed with him until her sister arrived, who then stayed with the baby until police arrived.
Responding officers called an Adams County Child Protective Services worker, who came and took custody of the baby and took him to Children's Hospital North in Broomfield.
Investigators went to the nearby gas station to review security camera footage and say they saw a man put the car seat into the median and briefly argue with the witness before walking away around 7:30 a.m. The witness then took the baby to her own apartment.
It's not immediately clear how investigators learned the identity of the baby or his parents, but in an arrest report, an Adams County sheriff's deputy was able to contact the baby's godmother, who said she was with Thurman.
Investigators later spoke to Thurman, who said she got home around 4:30 a.m. MT on Wednesday and got into an argument with Sims about her intoxication levels, according to the arrest report. She told deputies she watched Sims take their baby in the car seat, leave him in the intersection, and told Thurman to come get him. Not wanting to cause further arguments, she called her stepfather who picked Thurman up, she said.
Thurman told deputies she'd since been trying to contact Sims but was unsuccessful and locked out of their apartment.
Deputies went to the apartment and knocked on the door. Sims answered and said Thurman got home at 6:30 a.m. -- two hours later than Thurman reported -- and the two began arguing.
He said he took the baby to the intersection and dropped him there before returning home to go to sleep because he had to go to work in a few hours, according to the arrest report.
Thurman and Sims are both being held on a $50,000 bond. Neither have been formally charged, but deputies are recommending charges of misdemeanor child abuse and felony child abuse. They're due back in court Monday for a formal return filing of charges and both have been instructed to have no contact with the child.
Colorado's safe haven law, which allows parents to safely surrender their baby if they're 3 days old or younger, would not have applied in this case. The law allows parents in crisis to leave newborns at fire stations or hospitals within 72 hours, no questions asked. The nonprofit organization Colorado Safe Haven for Newborns says 87 infants have been safely surrendered under the program since the law went into effect in 2000. In 2019, schools in Colorado teaching sex education started including information about the state's safe haven law.
The Colorado Department of Human Services recommends that anyone who finds about any abuse of a child call the Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline at 1-844-CO-4-KIDS or 1-844-264-5437.
