Mom Pleads Guilty To Leaving Children in Locked Bathroom Without Food

The Cherokee County mother whose toddlers were found locked inside an apartment unit for several hours has entered a plea of guilty to two counts of cruelty to children in the first degree.

Angel Renee Henderson, 23, of Canton entered the plea last week in Cherokee County Superior Court, court records show. A sentencing hearing is set for 2 p.m. Friday, Oct. 3 in courtroom 2D.

Henderson was arrested on the evening of Wednesday, Jan. 8 after deputies with the Cherokee Sheriff’s Office responded to a call in reference to possible child neglect at the Waldan Pond Apartments on Bells Ferry Road in southwest Cherokee.

Deputies arrived on the scene and met with a maintenance worker who was making the rounds in the complex looking for the source of a water leak.

The worker told deputies he responded to a call from a unit in which a person reported a water leak in the ceiling. He went upstairs to another unit and found two boys, ages 2 and 3, locked in the bedroom of an apartment unit, Cherokee Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Lt. Jay Baker told Patch in January.

No adult was inside the unit with the children, who were discovered playing in a bathroom sink, which was determined to be the source of the leak.

“The children were unclothed and conditions in the room were not sanitary,” Baker said.

According to the incident report, the maintenance worker noted the bathroom sink overflowed, and the carpet in the room was soaked with water. Inside the bedroom, human waste from a diaper was found smeared on the floor and closet door.

The deputy responding to the call also noted the bedroom door was turned backwards — with the lock facing outside — “as if someone did it to be able to lock them inside their room,” he wrote in the report.

Henderson arrived at the unit — where she was living at the time — around 8 p.m. and initially told deputies she was only gone for two hours. However, they later determined she’d been away from the unit since around 11 a.m., Baker said. Henderson was arrested and later posted a $44,000 bond.

Both boys were taken into custody by the Cherokee Division of Family and Children Services.

Henderson was indicted in March on two counts of cruelty to children in the first degree and initially entered a not guilty plea in April.

(Photo: Angel Henderson, 23. Credit: Cherokee Sheriff’s Office)