BROOKFIELD TOWNSHIP, Ohio - A Brookfield man has entered a “not guilty” plea after being charged with child endangering for a second time in less than three years.

Two counts of child endangering were filed against 34-year-old Jerami Wells after police say he left a one-and-a-half-year-old daughter and five-year-old son alone at his Addison Road apartment while he walked to a convenience store about one-third of a mile away.

Police became involved Wednesday evening after a neighbor reported that the five-year-old was wandering outside with no coat and bare feet while it was windy, and temperatures were in the mid-thirties.

A neighbor told police that she found the apartment door open and music blaring, claiming she had been trying to reach the father for 20 minutes.

Police say they were trying to rouse someone in the apartment when Wells arrived, claiming he had only been gone five or ten minutes to walk to the Brookfield Drive-In on South Irvine Avenue.

After checking that the 2-year-old was okay, the officer asked Wells if he knew why it was not acceptable to leave a 5-year-old and a 2-year-old home alone.  According to the police report, Wells replied “No”.

When the children’s mother arrived at the apartment to care for the children, Wells was placed in handcuffs and booked into the county jail.  He pleaded “not guilty” during Thursday’s video arraignment and is scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing next week.

In September 2021, Warren Police filed a child endangering charge against Wells after police say his son, then two years old, was living in an apartment that one officer described as “in such an utter and completely deplorable condition that it personally ranks in the top five worst places to inhabit in over thirty years of Law Enforcement.”

Police became aware of the case after neighbors said that Wells and the child’s mother had left the child home alone.

Wells received jail time after pleading “no contest” to child endangering.