A jury trial has been scheduled for one of four persons from Wellston charged with child neglect and two others have been arraigned. The fourth is scheduled for arraignment later this month.
The four were residing in the same residence with nine children at the time of their arrest. One of the four is facing a second felony.
The nine children reportedly have been placed into custody with the Department of Human Services until a proper home is found.
Formal felony charges of child neglect were filed in Lincoln County District Court July 24, 2023 against Robert Nathaniel Cohran, 34, Vanessa Marie Poore, 33, Courtney Diana Eaton, 29, and Steven Owen Cohran, 32. Each faces one count of child neglect.
Robert Nathaniel Cohran also faces an additional felony of domestic assault and battery by strangulation.
During her arraignment Nov. 28 before District Judge John Canavan, Eaton pleaded not guilty.
Judge Canavan set her case for the felony disposition docket on May 7, 2024 and scheduled a jury trial for June 17, 2024.
During their arraignments on Dec. 19, Poore and Steven Owen Cohran each pleaded not guilty. Judge Canavan set each of them for the felony disposition docket on Jan. 16.
Robert Nathaniel Cohran has waived his preliminary hearing and the judge scheduled his arraignment for Jan. 16, 2024.
All four made an initial appearance on Aug. 17. In the child neglect counts against each, it states the four defendants conjointly committed the crime of child neglect on July 11 this year as persons responsible for the children’s healthy, safety or welfare who resided with nine children and neglected them by failing to provide adequate shelter, having the children live in a home without running water or a working sewer, and littered with trash, cockroaches, bedbugs, human feces and rotten food at a residence in Wellston.
The domestic assault and battery by strangulation count against Robert Nathiel Cohran accuses him on July 11 of strangling or attempting to strangle Courtney Eaton with whom he was in a dating relationship by choking her with the intent to harm her at that same residence.
In a probable cause affidavit Lincoln County Deputy Sheriff Phillip Bennett states that Deputy Sheriff Christoper Hyde was dispatched for a domestic disturbance on July 11 around 11:23 a.m. but requested another unit respond and Bennett was assigned to answer the call.
When he arrived, Bennett said, he heard screaming and yelling and that he had to separate Robert Cohran and Courtney Eaton.
Cohran told Bennett he and Eaton had been doing drugs for four days.
When Eaton was asked, she told the deputy Cohran was choking her and hitting her in the house in front of everyone.
Bennett further stated he noticed the red marks on Eaton’s neck and back.
Bennett said he requested backup and Wellston Officer Ashly Sanders arrived until Hyde could arrive to assist.
Once inside the house, they noticed it was not in proper living conditions. Department of Human Services specialists arrived and along with Bennett and Hyde it was decided to arrest and charge the adults and place the children in DHS custody until a proper home can be found.