Muldrow man now facing child neglect charge

A Muldrow man is charged with a felony count of child neglect after a child under the age of three was reportedly found left in an abandoned, running vehicle on the side of the road, earlier this month.

Adam V. Blum, 49, was charged August 16 in Sequoyah County District Court and pled not guilty at his Aug. 16 arraignment. He is now set to appear before Associate District Judge Kyle Waters for a Sept. 6 felony disposition docket.

Sequoyah County Sheriff ’s deputy Jeff Neighbors reported on Aug. 12 just after 8 p.m. he was patrolling the Liberty area when he discovered a small compact car about 400 yards east of his patrol unit on 1060 Road with the driver’s side door open and the air on. The vehicle was reportedly

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Sequoyah County Sheriff deputies Jeff Neighbors and Mark Choate launched an Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) to try and locate Adam V. Blum, which proved successful, allowing them to take him into custody without incident.

Adam V. Blum facing east but was parked in the westbound lane just off the roadway in a grass/ditch area, according to the probable cause affidavit filed in the case.

Because the vehicle had dark tinted windows, Neighbors was unable to determine if the vehicle was occupied and notified dispatch. He then approached the passenger side and found the vehicle was still running and a young child was in a car seat in the back seat.

The deputy reported the child was lethargic and slumped over on its chest, and its eyes were closed, so he shook the child but got no response. He then shook the child once more and tried to communicate with the child, and the child looked at the deputy, lowered its head and went back to sleep.

Neighbors reportedly continued to try and gently wake the child, while scanning the wooded area around the vehicle for a possible driver or occupant. Dispatch also sent EMS to Neighbor’s location to check on the health and well-being of the child.

Dispatch told Neighbors the 2020 Chevrolet Spark was registered to Mary Weeks and when they contacted her, she said she thought her vehicle was at her residence. She then stated Blum was the driver and was told where Neighbors and the child were so she could go to the location.

Weeks and Pam Broadway arrived where Broadway told the deputy Blum and the child had been staying with her. She said she and the child had driven to the store and she’d forgotten an item, and Blum offered to go back to the store to get the item with the child asleep in the car.

A Department of Human Services worker was asked to come to the scene, and the child was medically cleared and taken into custody by a family member, according to the affidavit. A BOLO was then issued for Blum.

On Aug. 13, Neighbors followed up with Broadway to see if Blum had made any contact with her or returned to the residence, but he had not.

Neighbors and Deputy Mark Choate then returned to the area where the vehicle had been located and launched an Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) to try and locate Blum.

Choate reported locating a “heat signature,” which was identified as an adult human lying motionless on the ground in a wooded area, north of where the vehicle had been located.

A Cherokee Marshal and Neighbors walked to where they believed the heat signature was and found a man matching Blum’s description on the ground asleep.

Authorities woke Blum and he was taken into custody, where he also agreed to speak with Neighbors. According to the affidavit, Blum admitted to driving Week’s vehicle and then seeing a Sheriff ’s vehicle before parking the car and abandoning it. He said he went into the wooded area to avoid detection by the deputy, and first denied the child was in the vehicle before then saying the child was in the vehicle when he left it.

Blum asked Neighbors how he could forget the child in the car when he was only a half mile from the residence. Neighbors responded by asking Blum, “Do you think it could have something to do with all the meth you have been smoking the last three or four days, and the lack of sleep?” Blum’s response was “probably so,” according to the affidavit.

Blum was then transported to the Sequoyah County Detention Center where he was booked in on the charge.

District Attorney Jack Thorp said the crime is punishable by imprisonment in the custody of the Department of Corrections not exceeding life imprisonment, or by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding one year, or by a fine of not less than $500 nor more than $5,000, or both fine and imprisonment.