He Blows: Man Charged With Passing Out While Baby Left in Freezing Cold Fails Breath Test at Court Appearance

JOLIET, IL — A Joliet man charged with leaving a baby alone in the freezing cold while he was passed out on a couch with his girlfriend failed a breath test — blowing five times the legal limit for driving — when he went to court for the case.

A prosecutor asked for the breath test to be administered to Kenyatta Franklin Monday morning and Will County Judge Matt Bertani ordered it. Franklin, 36, didn’t do so well on the test, registering a whopping .4 percent blood-alcohol content, according to a court filing. The legal limit for driving is .08 percent.

Franklin was taken into custody by the sheriff’s department and booked into the county jail.

Franklin had been free on bond since March 10, six days after he was arrested on a charge of child endangerment. Franklin’s girlfriend, 42-year-old Melissa Vance, was arrested and jailed along with him, but Vance was released just two days later when prosecutors dropped the case against her.

Franklin and Vance were taken into custody at their East Washington Street apartment after a neighbor found Vance’s 11-month-old daughter alone outside, police said. The child reportedly had been left in a stroller in the apartment’s parking lot. She was unresponsive but breathing, police said.

The 59-year-old neighbor reportedly called the cops and the child was taken to Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox.

The cops reportedly figured out that the baby’s mother lived in one of the apartments next to the parking lot. Officers knocked on the unlocked door and it swung open, police said, but no one answered when they called out. The officers entered the apartment and saw Vance face-down on the couch with Franklin on top of her. The couple was passed out, police said, and it took some effort to rouse them.

Vance and Franklin both smelled of alcohol, police said. Franklin was reportedly disoriented when he came to. Officers asked Vance if she knew where her child was, police said, but she passed out again before she could answer.

The officers reportedly determined that Franklin had taken the child along in the stroller when he went to visit someone, and that he stopped at a liquor store on the way home. A receipt from the liquor store showed that the child may have been alone in the parking lot for nearly half an hour, police said. When the little girl was found, she was reportedly wearing an unzipped jacket and no gloves or hat. There was a blanket in the stroller, but it wasn’t covering her, police said.

A Silver Cross doctor reportedly informed police that the baby will be fine despite her ordeal.

The temperature at the time was 34.9 degrees, according to police, but wind chill made it feel like it was below freezing.

Vance and Franklin both live in the apartment, according to police, who could not confirm Franklin is the child’s father.

Franklin was charged with child endangerment at least once before, in 2006, according to court records. A judge found him not guilty following a trial.

Kenyatta Franklin | image via Will County Sheriff's Department