Five years ago Nicolas Carter and his wife were arrested and charged with felony child neglect after authorities got complaints about the couple’s Espanola home. The couple was living with five young children in conditions lamentable beyond description. Both parents pleaded and were sentenced to a probationary diversionary program that they followed, enabling the felony charges they’d faced to be dropped when they completed the program two years ago.
On Friday, Carter was arrested again on a similar charge, felony child neglect, and a misdemeanor charge of obstruction after one of his children–a toddler who was apparently born after the incident four years ago–wandered into the car of a grocery-delivery person then walked back and forth across the street between 7 and 12 Barley Lane for about 10 minutes, unattended by anyone before disappearing into the garage at 7 Barley. The delivery person had tried to find out from the child anything about home or parents, without success. She called 911 and left.
Deputies have responded to the house at 7 Barley Lane 16 times just since January 2023. That April deputies found a child Carter was responsible for wandering in the road. A few days after last Christmas paramedics responded to the house because one of the children was having a seizure after accidentally ingesting marijuana that had been apparently left unattended.
When a Flagler County Sheriff’s deputy arrived at the house, he could see a shirtless juvenile walking inside, through the windows, before Carter opened the front door. Carter acknowledged that his 2 year old had been wandering outside, and that he’d left the garage door open while he went somewhere else in the house. But he said he’d “found” the child in the driveway, and that he couldn’t have been gone but five minutes. He was one of five children he was responsible for, he said. His wife was at work. (At the time of their arrest four years ago, both worked at McDonald’s.) A 28-year-old man shares the house with the couple.
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A deputy familiar with Carter’s history asked to walk inside and have a look. Carter granted permission, according to his arrest report. The deputy found conditions similar to those that had been uncovered at the Espanola house–stagnant air, foul odors, including of feces and urine, mold, a sticky substance near a sliding door that Carter could not be sure about. Maybe urine, maybe oil, he said. A large German shepherd wandered around inside, as did a barefoot 4-year-old girl. The deputy described the interiors as “unsafe and horrid living conditions.”
Additional deputies arrived. They examined other rooms in the house and saw more unlivable conditions, including fecal matter several days old, garbage inside rooms, a kitchen in complete disarray with dishes, rotting food scattered about, roaches and flies, easily accessible knives, dead insects on the same floors the children were walking through barefoot. In the master bedroom, where all the children sleep, according to Carter, deputies saw “dirty clothing, waste, garbage and urine,” a closet with no door and more fecal matter inside, swarming with flies. There were two beds with blankets and pillows on the floor. During the inspection a 15-year-old child began cleaning parts of the kitchen. Other rooms and the bathrooms were more of the same, with hazardous objects the younger children could choke on or be cut by.
The garage had several power tools, exposed wire, a BB gun and a metal smoking pipe typically used to smoke pot. Deputies called Carter’s wife and the Department of Children and Families. The BB gun was seized.
A neighbor reported to FlaglerLive: “That’s not the first time we’ve seen little ones running around unsupervised. Last year [a neighbor] picked up a toddler (white) that was in her backyard and walked her back to that disgusting house. The toddler was filthy and only had a soggy diaper on. We called FCSO on them but I guess since the police didn’t see it no one was charged.
“Hopefully, this time DCF will take serious action to turn the homelife around for these children, the least of which is to learn how to be a parent and clean up his house,” Sheriff Rick Staly said in a release. “I also thank the citizen that ‘saw something and said something’ so deputies could intervene.”
