This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A woman has been charged with in connection with leaving her child inside a locked car for at least two hours while she purportedly sought drugs at a Salt Lake City homeless shelter.
Akilah Mandisa Davis, 36, of West Valley City was charged Wednesday in Salt Lake City Justice Court with class B misdemeanor counts of failure to supervise a child and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Her first court appearance is set for June 6.
Salt Lake City police say that at about 4:30 p.m. on April 12, Davis parked her car near 500 West and 300 South, leaving her toddler daughter behind. A passerby, returning about a half-hour later, saw the car, its window up, still with the child sitting in the back seat.
The mother did not return until about 7:10 p.m., police said.
By then, Utah Transit Authority police from the nearby Salt Lake City Intermodal Hub facility had forced entry to the car and removed the child. SLCPD officers also had arrived, waiting for the mother to return.
A probable cause statement alleges that when confronted by police, Davis "admitted to intentionally leaving the child alone in the vehicle ... while she went to the shelter."
A subsequent search of the woman turned up "a glass crack pipe with burnt drug residue.
The woman allegedly told officers she got the pipe "while at the shelter," the statement added.
Court records show that Davis has past misdemeanor convictions for shoplifting and driving without a license.
Her child, uninjured, was taken into protective custody by the Utah Division of Child and Family Services.