Beaumont Enterprise
VIDOR, Texas — The baby sitter of a Vidor boy who accidentally killed himself Monday afternoon is in custody on a quarter-of-a-million dollar bond.
Melissa Ringhardt was arrested Tuesday afternoon for abandoning or endangering a child, a state jail felony, in the boy’s death. Her bond was set at $250,000 Wednesday morning.
Ringhardt, 19, was watching 5-year-old John Read and a six-month old child at his parent’s home in the 1200 block of Roberts Road Monday when she apparently left a .40-caliber handgun on a table in the living room before going to take a nap, authorities with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office announced in a news release.
Ringhardt apparently awoke from the nap and didn’t find the boy immediately, but found him while searching the home.
The child apparently from a gunshot wound to the head and authorities found him at his grandparents house near where the shooting happened. Ringhardt apparently carried the child to the grandparents house because she did not have access to a phone.
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