Nikolas Anthony Cummings, 32, and Tashaye Brown, 31, are at the Flagler County jail, each facing two felony counts of child and elderly neglect, after authorities uncovered unlivable conditions at 59 Westmoreland Drive in Palm Coast, where the couple was caring for an elderly man, a toddler, and the elderly man’s 38-year-old son.
A Flagler County Fire Rescue lieutenant responded to the house early Tuesday morning (Jan. 13) to assist Brown’s 87-year-old uncle, who had fallen. The uncle, a disabled widower, has owned the house since 1999. Brown and Cummings, her fiancé, had moved in two years ago.
The lieutenant “initially observed the residence to be covered in garbage, cockroach droppings and sticky surfaces,” the couple’s arrest report states. The report also refers to vile odors similar to cat urine and feces.
“While maneuvering throughout the residence Lieutenant Graham observed insects in all directions,” the report continues. “While assisting the elderly male, insects emerged from the mattress and clothing worn by the elderly male. That same mattress appeared to have been defecated and urinated on, countless times as stains were spread wide, covering almost the entire surface. The pillowcases appeared to be completely discolored with ‘brown and orange stains.’”
The lieutenant then noticed a toddler. The child is 1 year old. He was sleeping amid debris in the living room. Roaches were crawling over him as he slept. Deputies later removed insects from his hair. Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies were concerned about the availability of food for the child. Brown showed them a fridge with items covered in mold, though she had also just bought fresh fruit for the child.
Brown told deputies she had been working on improving the house’s condition. “We are working on it. It was worse before,” she said.
While inspecting the kitchen and laundry room and dining area, deputies noted that open electrical outlets were lined with black cloudy spots consistent with roach droppings. The junction of walls and ceilings were lined with black spots all around the kitchen. The vents were covered with mold, leaving only a small portion of the original white color to be visible.
The elderly man was in his bedroom, where deputies found worse conditions and stronger odors. The man is not mobile beyond the ability to make it to a portable toilet 3 or 4 feet away from his bed. Five days earlier, he had been released from a two-week hospital stay but was still wearing a “gripper”-type sock commonly provided to patients at the hospital. He told deputies he had not changed since returning from the hospital. Deputies could not establish whether the older man was being fed properly, or whether he was taking his medications.
“No one-year-old should be living in any condition like this. Do you understand that?” a deputy told Brown. She agreed, saying: “We don’t want to be here.” She said it was too expensive to hire a professional to address the infestation, so she’d been spraying roach repellent and flipping the child’s portable enclosure every night to “shake the insects out,” according to the report.
The elderly man’s 38-year-old son, the deputies found, appeared to behave in a manner consistent with an undiagnosed behavioral or mental disorder.
Cummings said he and Brown are the sole providers and caretakers for the elderly man and his son. They said they’d moved in two years ago because the 38-year-old couldn’t care for his father, and they thought that Brown’s uncle was near death, so they felt obligated to care for both of them. Deputies concluded that neither was fulfilling those responsibilities, nor the responsibility to care for the toddler.
Cummings and Brown were arrested and charged with child neglect and elderly neglect. They are being held on $15,000 bond. A judge has ordered them to have no contact with either victim. Temporary guardianship of the toddler was turned over to Cummings’s sister. The uncle was taken to AdventHealth Palm Coast. The Department of Children and Families was notified. It will determine future arrangements.
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