Mom who drank with dad for a week before infant son died pleads guilty
A mother who told police that she and her infant twins’ father had “been drunk for about a week” when one of her sons died at a Wichita motel has pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and four counts of child endangerment.
Christy Rollings is scheduled for a sentencing hearing on Oct. 31, where her attorney plans to ask Sedgwick County District Judge Joe Kisner to place her on probation, according to court records. Rollings admitted to the crimes Sept. 20 — two days after the court released an affidavit revealing details of how she and Kyle Kempton lived leading up to the death of 2-month-old Patrick Kempton.
Patrick was found unresponsive on Aug. 30, pressed up against his sleeping father’s chest as they lay in a hotel room bed at the Scotsman Inn, 5299 W. Kellogg Drive. The family had been living in the hotel for about a week at the time.
Rollings, 39, told police that she and Kyle Kempton, 34, had spent the day before the death drinking alcohol instead of sobering up so they could get their twins back from a relative who officers had asked to provide care after the couple was found intoxicated on Aug. 28.
The relative returned the boys to their parents the next day. They were never taken into police protective custody; the state later said that option should have been considered to ensure the boys’ safety.
Rollings and Kempton each slept with one of the twins the night of Aug. 29 after they spent the day drinking vodka in the hotel, the affidavit says.
When Rollings woke up the next morning, Patrick wasn’t breathing and had blood underneath him. She told police that after she woke up Kempton she heard him say, “I must’ve rolled over on him” and “they told us not to sleep with the baby.”
An autopsy report expected to reveal Patrick’s cause of death hasn’t been released yet.
Both parents were arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment in the case. Kempton is due in court for a preliminary hearing on Oct. 4. He and Rollings plan to ask a judge to lower their bond amounts at a hearing set for later this week, court records show. Each remains in the Sedgwick County Jail in lieu of $150,000 bond.
This story was originally published September 26, 2018 at 11:36 AM.