A Springdale man originally charged with murder in the death of his infant stepson pleaded guilty last week in a deal with prosecutors to a lesser charge of failing to seek medical care for the child after a crime lab report failed to support the murder charge.
Tremelle Deshun Overton, 24, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Washington County Circuit Court to endangering the welfare of a minor and was sentenced to six years at the Arkansas Department of Correction. He was given credit for 285 days jail time served.
The child was not breathing when he was brought to Northwest Medical Center in Springdale by ambulance Aug. 1. Doctors were unable to revive the boy.
When police questioned Overton and the child’s mother, Ashley Overton told police she found the child with a blanket wrapped tightly around his head and he was not breathing when she unwrapped it. Tremelle Overton was watching the baby at the time while Ashley Overton slept, according to police reports.
Ashley Overton told police she did not see Overton wrap the blanket around the baby but the two had been arguing and Overton was angry and complained about the baby crying.
In Tremelle Overton’s interview with police, he said he and his wife found the child wrapped in the blanket and that he removed the child from the crib.
The state crime lab found no evidence the baby had been smothered, but the baby was found to have been very ill and in need of medical care, according to Terra Stevenson, deputy prosecuting attorney.
Overton was on probation at the time for domestic abuse involving Ashley Overton while she was pregnant with the child, according to police records.