Tulsa kids, 3 and 4, died in hot truck while dad slept following cocaine use; dad pleads guilty
07/20/2021 2:34 pm PDT
TULSA, Okla. (TCD) --
A Tulsa man pleaded guilty to felony neglect last week in the deaths of his two children, who died from heat exposure in his truck while he slept in his apartment after using cocaine in June 2020.
Dustin Lee Dennis, 32, admitted in a plea agreement that he got high on cocaine while caring for his two children between June 12-13, 2020.
Dennis had gone to his brother’s house to procure cocaine and play video games on the night of June 12, 2020.
He had brought his children, ages 3 and 4, because Dennis’s own mother could not take care of them at the time, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Dustin Dennis returned home from his brother’s house with the kids just before 1 a.m. on June 13. He texted his brother saying he had snorted cocaine, and was about to use more.
Just after noon on June 13, Dustin Dennis drove alone to a convenience store for 11 minutes, then returned to his apartment and fell asleep.
As Dennis slept, surveillance video recorded his two children trying to get into his pickup truck, parked in the driveway, at 1:22 p.m. The vehicle alarm went off.
Surveillance video shows the children tried again at 1:29 p.m., and successfully got into the truck at that time.
The children died from “exposure to extremely high temperatures while being trapped in the truck,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
At 5:32 p.m., video shows Dustin Dennis leaving his apartment to search for the children and finding them dead in the back seat of his truck.
Dustin Dennis and his brother, Michael Dennis, were charged with use of a communication facility in committing, causing, and facilitating the commission of a drug-trafficking felony. Dustin Dennis was also charged with two counts of child neglect.
In the plea agreement, Dustin Dennis and prosecutors agreed to a sentence between 36 and 72 months in federal prison and five years of supervised release. A U.S. District Judge will issue the final sentence on Nov. 10, 2021.
The crime occurred within the boundaries of the Muscogee Nation reservation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Oklahoma said. The FBI and Tulsa Police both conducted the investigation.
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