WATERBURY — A Rhode Island couple accused of keeping their two young children in “squalor” while they were on the run from authorities have been charged with child abuse offenses in Connecticut.
Jesueily Sanchez, 25, and Tyshaun Peete, 28, were arrested in Waterbury this week by local police and members of the U.S. Marshals’ Rhode Island and Connecticut Violent Fugitive Task Force.
Authorities learned they were staying at a third-floor apartment in Waterbury, according to incident reports from their arrests obtained Wednesday by Hearst Connecticut Media Group. Law enforcement used a battering ram to break open the apartment door after Sanchez refused to identify herself or open the door, the report stated.
Authorities said the apartment was in “unlivable conditions, with numerous open containers that appeared to be filled with urine, rotting garbage strewn about the kitchen, piles of dirty dishes, piles of clothing, a single air mattress, no crib or children’s bed,” one officer wrote in the report. Investigators also found “a room with two dogs with the floor covered in feces,” according to the report.
In the kitchen, the stove “was covered in dirty pans and what appeared to be old food,” the officer wrote in the report.
Another detective wrote that “a smell of urine took over the whole house” and that Sanchez and both the children were naked, the report stated.
The report did not indicate the ages of the children, but U.S. Marshals described them as toddlers.
According to the report, one of the children had never been seen by a doctor. Both were evaluated by health care workers for signs of abuse, according to the report.
Connecticut court records show Waterbury police charged Sanchez with two felony counts of risk of injury to a child and two counts of negligent cruelty to a child, a misdemeanor offense. Peete was charged with a single count each of risk of injury to a child and negligent cruelty to a child. Sanchez is being held at the York Correctional Institution in Niantic, while Peete is being held in the New Haven Correctional Center, records show.
The children were placed in the custody of the Connecticut Department of Children and Families, officials said.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Marshals Rhode Island office said it was unclear if they were renting the apartment or if someone else was allowing them to stay there. No other adults were found in the apartment.
Rhode Island State Police began investigating Sanchez in October after a complaint was filed by the state Department of Children and Family Services alleging medical neglect, the reports state.
The complaint alleged Sanchez had removed one of the children from Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Rhode Island, where the child was being treated for an open tuft fracture to one of her fingers. The complaint alleged Sanchez refused medical treatment for the child.
U.S. Marshals said the agency began a fugitive investigation last December.
Marshals said one of the couple’s children had “previously been classified as missing and endangered” in Rhode Island and a court order had granted custody to the state Department of Children, Youth and Families. The U.S. Marshals’ Rhode Island office said they could not comment on the Department of Children, Youth and Families investigation. Rhode Island state police also declined to comment on the case, citing the ongoing investigation.
Peete was wanted by Rhode Island authorities for failing to show up in court for charges related to an incident in October when he was allegedly found in possession of a handgun.
In that incident, a Rhode Island state trooper pulled over Peete in Providence for a motor vehicle violation and claimed to smell marijuana from inside the car, according to the incident report. When the trooper ordered Peete out of the car and began to handcuff him, the officer said the man “used his right elbow to strike his abdomen and attempted to flee from the scene on foot,” the report stated.
Peete was eventually taken into custody after the trooper used a Taser on him, the report stated. When state police searched the Jeep Peete had been driving, they found a fanny pack containing a 9mm handgun and a gram of marijuana, the report stated.
He was charged with carrying a carrying a pistol without a license, resisting arrest and driving without a license.