A 47-year-old Georgia man has been charged with murder after a 17-month-old child drowned in a bathtub while he was supposedly caring for the child.
Kenton Hamilton told police that the toddler fell asleep on his chest while he slept on a couch on Thursday, the Marietta Daily Journal said. Hamilton claimed that the child woke up, got off his chest, went up two flights of stairs, climbed into a bathtub, turned on the water, and drowned.
He said he was unaware that the child was gone until a friend woke him up.
A police report did not make clear the relationship between Hamilton and the child or give the child’s name, but WSB reported that the child was Hamilton’s son. Another child, a 4-year-old boy, was reportedly sleeping on the sofa with Hamilton and the toddler.
Kennessaw police officers, Cobb County firefighters, and paramedics responded to the 911 call and began CPR. They took the boy to Wellstar Kennestone Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Hamilton faces four felonies: second-degree murder, cruelty to a child, felon in possession of a firearm, and a cocaine possession. His previous felony conviction was for statutory rape.
The arrest warrant says that Hamilton was the only adult in the home at the time of the child’s death, according to the Daily Journal.
Police said they found two baggies of cocaine under the couch cushion and guns in the home.
Hamilton is being held without bail.
