Mercer County woman charged with felony child neglect
princeton – One parent has been arrested and a warrant is ready for another after three children were found living in conditions both law enforcement and state Child Protective Service personnel called 'deplorable.'
Ashley Nicole Smith, 30, of Princeton has been charged with three counts of gross child neglect and another three counts of concealment of a minor child, according to a criminal complaint filed by Capt. S.A. Sommers with the Mercer County Sheriff's Department. Both types of charges are felonies.
In West Virginia, child neglect resulting in injury or creating risk of injury is a felony with a possible one to five year prison term, according to the West Virginia Code. Concealment or removal of a minor child from a custodian or a person entitled to visitation is another felony with a penalty of up to a year in jail.
Smith was being held Thursday at the Southern Regional Jail on a $25,000 cash or surety bond with the condition of home confinement if released.
The investigation leading to Smith's arrest spans from April 2023 to July 2024, Sommers said in the complaint. It involves Smith and the biological father of their three children.
In April 2023, a Child Protective Services case was opened due to reports of deplorable living conditions for the three children and drug use by their parents, Sommers said. On April 19, 2023, the family was evicted from their home near Bluefield and rented a room at a Princeton motel. Shortly afterward, Smith moved the children to a relative's Kentucky home. Child Protective Services lost contact with the family after May 29, 2023.
Child Protective Services regained contact with the family in December 2023 and learned they had returned to Mercer County. Sommers said in his complaint that Smith and the father failed to fully cooperate with drug screenings. On May 29, 2024, Child Protective Services lost contact with the family again, but found they had used SNAP benefits in Mercer County on June 15 and 16, 2024.
Through a relative, the agency learned the family was living near Bramwell, Sommers said. This relative said one of the children's relatives had stopped at the home and 'observed that the children were dirty, barely clothed and appeared skinny. He also alleged that he had taken food to them, but was cussed at and the food was thrown away.'
After a Child Protective Services worker visited the family's home on June 28, 2024, Magistrate Susan Honaker granted the department emergency custody of the children, Sommers said in the complaint. The worker returned to the home and learned that the family had left. The owner of a trailer the family had been using allowed the worker and law enforcement to inspect it.
'They found there was no power or running water and it smelled 'foul,'' Sommers said. 'She reported that it was hard to breathe due to the odor. The home was in 'complete disarray' and the conditions were 'deplorable.' There was a broken window in the kitchen and throughout the home. She located a twin bed that the children slept on, finding it filthy.'
The owner told the Child Protective Services worker not to enter the back room due to a snake infestation.
'He continued, stating he had killed three snakes already' and that was why the parents had taped the door shut, Sommers said.
'The ceiling in the hallway connected to that room was falling in and appeared wet,' Sommers said in the complaint.
On July 1, 2024, Smith was told that the department had custody of the children and that she needed to turn them over, but she refused and stated she was in Kentucky, Sommers said. That same day, Child Protective Services were tipped about where the children were living and relayed the information to Deputy J. Pinter.
According to information from Pinter's report, Pinter and Deputy A. Presley went to Old Coaldale Mountain Road to serve the state's custody order. An anoymous source informed them that the family was deep in the woods, according to Pinter's report.
When law enforcement located the site, they found a tent set up next to a vehicle. The father was taken into custody due to an active warrant out of Tazewell County, Va. Authorities in that county advised they would extradite the father.
Smith and the three children, all under the age of 12, were found, Pinter said.
'The children's clothes and bodies were extremely dirty, their clothes fit poorly and I did not observe there to be adequate shelter, food or water in the area,' Pinter said in his report.
The Child Protective Services worker later said that the children were dirty from sleeping on the ground. On July 17, 2024 during a forensic interview with one of the children, Child Protective Services learned that the family had moved about four times a month because of the state agency 'finding them,' Pinter said.
'She also revealed that they had to rely on others to bring food and that they stayed hungry,' Pinter said.
On Monday, Sommers requested that the Mercer County Magistrate Court issue warrants for Smith and the father, who had not been arrested on the charges as of Thursday.
Contact Greg Jordan at
gjordan@bdtonline.com
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