A Newton woman with three children received two identical sentences this week for separate cases of neglect. Thirty-five-year-old Angelia Michele Varner, pleaded guilty to a class C felony neglect of a dependent person charge, and an aggravated misdemeanor charge of child neglect. In both cases, District Court Judge Charles Sinnard issued deferred judgments with two years of probation and $855 civil penalties. The felony charge involved an incident in September, when Newton Police say Varner fell asleep in her bedroom with the door closed, leaving her children unsupervised. Officers entered her Woodland Heights Apartment after her oldest child was found outside the apartment, attempting to get someone inside to open the door. The police report noted the apartment was filled with smoke because the stove was on, and that Varner’s other two children were in the apartment. 

In the other case from August 14th, Newton police say a young child of Varner’s fell through an open second-story bedroom window at their apartment. The child suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was treated in the Emergency Room at MercyOne Newton Medical Center. Newton Police Captain Chris Wing said the window the child fell out of had a significantly torn screen, and that the fall occurred while Varner was in the parking lot of the apartment building.