Hearing For Beaumont Man Found With Dead Child In Apartment: Court

BEAUMONT, CA — A preliminary hearing scheduled Tuesday was continued to next month for a Beaumont man who was allegedly found comatose from a drug overdose in an apartment where a child was found dead and a woman was dying.

Tyler Lawrence Finley, 26, is due in court July 29. He is facing a felony charge of willful child cruelty with a sentence-enhancing allegation of corporal injury on a child causing death. He has pleaded not guilty.

Finley was arrested by Beaumont police Dec. 16, 2020, after he was discovered in his apartment in the 800 block of E. 6th Street with a 4-year-old girl who had succumbed to unspecified injuries and a woman who may have been her mother or legal guardian. Police had been called to the residence after receiving reports of an occupant in medical distress.

First responders found the dead girl, whose identity has not been released, as well as Finley and the woman, 24-year-old Cheyenne Blackerby, who were unconscious and near death, apparently from an overdose on unconfirmed drugs, police said.

Blackerby and Finley were taken to a hospital, where she later died, and he staged a recovery, after which he was booked into jail.

No other information was available regarding the circumstances or relationships.

Finley has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.

Finley was being held without bail at the Southwest Detention Center in Murrieta, according to court and jail records.