Daniel Prince
Couple charged with unlawful conduct toward a child
A Union couple faces charges after leaving a three-year-old alone in their home. Cpl. Cole Stanley with the Union County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene of a vehicle accident with entrapment on Jonesville-Lockhart Highway near Jordan’s Hot Spot. He was assisting fire and EMS personnel when a man approached him, saying that the driver of one of the vehicles, identified as 25-year-old Ronnie Mitchell Woodruff, had left the man’s three-year-old daughter at home alone in Lockhart unattended.
Stanley spoke with Woodruff, who confirmed the child was at home alone. He gave the girl’s father a key to the house to go pick up his daughter. When asked why he left the child alone, he told Stanley he was only going to be gone a minute. He said he went to take the child’s mother, identified as 25-year-old Allison Nicole Smith, to work at Dollar General Distribution. Cpl. Stanley told Woodruff that it was a 25-minute ride one way, and that would leave the child unattended for nearly an hour. Stanley went to the house in Lockhart, where the child’s father had arrived and was with the child. There were no other adults around in the house.
Stanley went back to the Hot Spot, advised Woodruff of his rights, and placed him under arrest. He transported Woodruff to the Union County Jail. He also contacted DSS and provided them with all the information he had. Both Woodruff and Smith were arrested and charged with unlawful conduct toward a child. Woodruff was charged with unlawful lane change in the accident. Bond was set at $10,000 on the unlawful conduct charge, and Woodruff and Smith remain in the Union County Detention Center.