Drunk Mother Arrested After 10-Month-Old Baby Was Found Alone At Hotel
In the early hours of Sunday, August 21, 2022, an alarming situation unfolded at the Country Inn & Suites in Hot Springs, Arkansas, leading to the arrest of a 30-year-old Denver woman on charges of child endangerment. Samantha Nicole Hitchcock, visibly intoxicated and wandering between hotels, had reportedly left her infant alone for hours in the hotel room.
A concerned witness at the Quality Inn first encountered Hitchcock when she had asked to charge her phone, later revealing that she couldn’t find her baby. A witness concerned for the infant’s safety helped Hitchcock to locate her room at the Country Inn & Suites, and as they approached, they could already hear the baby’s cries echoing throughout the hallway.
Witness: “Okay, this woman has been… we are at that hotel, the Quality Inn & Suites. She’s been walking back and forth between our hotel room for at least probably 30, 40 minutes, okay? She’s obviously messed up on something. She asked us to plug her phone up in our hotel room. We plugged her phone up in our hotel room, then she started to tell us she had a kid over here. We asked her for details. She’s at the Country Inn & Suites, so we came over here. He helped us get her to her room… sorry, I’m really messed up, take a breath. So upset right now. There’s a baby in that hotel room by herself.”
Officer: “Take a deep breath. Deep breath in and deep breath out. It’s going to calm you down, it’s going to help you relax. You can tell us the rest of the story. Take a breath. Is she in there right now?”
Witness: “Yes, she’s in there right now, and my boyfriend’s in the doorway.”
Officer: “Hey man, how’s it going?”
Boyfriend (Witness 2): “Yeah, come just waiting here till y’all got here. We were sitting outside of our room next door and she comes out, and she’s obviously under the influence or something, and she asked… she waited around about 15 or 20 minutes, and finally I was like, ‘Hey, what’s your name?’ you know. And she told me she needed to charge her phone, and after she was charging her phone I was like, ‘You know, what are you doing here?’ And she’s like, ‘Well, uh, something about her baby.’ And I’m like, ‘Where’s your baby?’ Inside.”
Officers would later find multiple bottles of alcohol near the infant’s formula and Hitchcock sitting beside her child, still visibly intoxicated. Hitchcock admitted to placing the baby to bed around 9:00 p.m. but had only returned at 3:00 a.m. thanks to the witness who had helped her. Shockingly, if not for that witness, the baby could have been left alone for an even longer period of time in the room.
Officer: “And I was like, what can you… so what’s going on tonight?”
Hitchcock: “Really nothing is going on, huh? There’s really nothing going on. Being a little bit dramatic.”
Officer: “So why was your baby left in the room?”
Hitchcock: “Uh, literally for like 10 minutes. I went downstairs, I’m not getting any service. I went downstairs to make a phone call.”
Officer: “So what are you on right now? What’s up? What are you on right now?”
Hitchcock: “What am I on? Nothing. I have no service. I have absolutely no way to contact anybody, so I went downstairs to try to get service. I mentioned that she was asleep.”
Officer: “So where are you from?”
Hitchcock: “We’re from Colorado. We’re driving to Virginia.”
Officer: “You wasn’t concerned about her earlier?”
Hitchcock: “Oh, I’ve always been concerned about my child.”
Officer: “Well, not if you’re leaving her in a hotel room. Get your ID. Literally asleep. Get your ID. How old is your baby?”
Hitchcock: “He’s 10 months. 10 months. She was asleep, by the way.”
Officer: “Get your ID. So who are you here with?”
Hitchcock: “It’s just me here. I’d like to add it’s like 2 in the morning.”
Officer: “Do what? 2:00 in the morning?”
Hitchcock: “And she was asleep, okay.”
Officer: “When was the last time you changed her diaper?”
Hitchcock: “I change her diaper all the time. Like, quite literally.”
Officer: “Oh, quite literally it’s pretty full.”
Hitchcock: “Yeah, she pees. It’s 2:00 in the morning. I put her to bed at 9:00, 10:00.”
Officer: “And then where’d you go at 9:00, 10:00?”
Hitchcock: “I was just hanging out. So let me get the truth… I was chilling with my kid and then I went downstairs. Yeah, that’s what happened.”
Officer: “So you were chilling downstairs while your kid was…”
Hitchcock: “I didn’t chill downstairs. I went downstairs, just went to… I don’t normally even smoke. I went to look at some TikTok instead of doing that with your kid in the room. Um, normally at 3:00 a.m. I don’t like to, like, drag her downstairs, you know, cuz that would be pretty aggressive.”
Officer: “So how much have you had to drink?”
Hitchcock: “A margarita, perhaps. Not much.”
Officer: “So you’re supposed to be being responsible for your kid, and you’re leaving her up here. You’re drinking while you’re supposed to be taking care of her.”
Hitchcock: “That sounds really, like, ridiculous if you put it in that context. It was more like I was a super responsible human being. My child fell asleep around 10 or 11, and then I proceeded to have an alcoholic beverage as an adult after she fell asleep, and then leave her in a room by herself for at least an hour…”
Officer: “We’ve got multiple witnesses to like testify that at least an hour.”
Hitchcock: “It was not an hour. Also, I went downstairs and came back up. I went downstairs and I came back upstairs.”
Officer: “Well, I mean, we can also go pull video footage if you like, cuz it’s going to have…”
Hitchcock: “I’m not worried about that because I didn’t do anything wrong. Like, she… the girl didn’t even know I had a kid until I said, ‘I have to go back upstairs because my child is upstairs.’ That’s how she knew that I had a kid up here, because I told her that I had to go upstairs.”
Officer: “If you’ve only had one drink, why are you so unsteady on your feet?”
Hitchcock: “Actually, I messed my toe up, so that hurts.”
Officer: “Being in the condition of her diaper, you might change her. Might help. How many kids do you have?”
Hitchcock: “That’s not your business.”
Officer: “Oh, you have none, huh? So go ahead and change her. Being her diaper’s full, I mean, common sense would tell you that if it’s full it needs to be changed, correct?”
Hitchcock: “Actually, I can tell you have no kids because yes, I’m going to change her diaper, but they actually not supposed to change their diaper… oh, so you’re not supposed to change their diaper when their diaper is full? No, not off that.”
Officer: “You said you’ve had one drink?”
Hitchcock: “Yes.”
Officer: “So what about the one beside the bed and the one in here by the sink?”
Hitchcock: “What about it?”
Officer: “That’s more than one drink. Correct? That’s two. And being they’re like 40 oz servings… Illegal, officer, when it endangers a child.”
Hitchcock: “Yes, ma’am, it is.”
Officer: “Endanger my child? You are, when you leave her unattended while you’re intoxicated.”
(Officers step aside to confer) Officer 2: “So I’d hook her. I think her leaving… well, that, and you got a 40 oz there, a 40 oz beside the bed that’s empty. I take her and call DCFS and go from there.”
Officer: “So step off the bed.”
Hitchcock: “Yeah, she’d have to hop off the bed for…”
Officer: “I can’t, because she could fall off if I hop off the bed…”
Officer: “She’s okay. Put your hands on that wall. Hands on the wall.”
Hitchcock: “Why do it now?”
Officer: “You’re under arrest. Put your hands on the wall.”
Hitchcock: “I’m not doing both hands on the wall right now.”
Officer: “That’s exactly correct, you aren’t doing anything.”
Hitchcock: “Why am I under arrest?”
Officer: “You’re under arrest for child endangerment. We have more than enough probable cause to believe that you left a 10-month-old child… your 10-month-old child… in a room by itself for at least 30 minutes while you’re intoxicated. That’s called child endangerment. You’re not taking care of your child properly. You can’t leave a 10-month-old by themselves, they can’t fend for themselves. It’s not… you can’t do it.”
Hitchcock: “Are you serious?”
Officer: “I’m 100% serious.”
Hitchcock: “Are you serious?”
Officer: “100% serious.”
Hitchcock: “I haven’t done anything though.”
Officer: “Yeah, exactly, you haven’t done anything. You haven’t taken care of your child properly by not doing anything. Okay, well, when you have to go to a different hotel to ask for help to find your room, and then have to have the front desk give you a key card to get into your room with your 10-month-old child, I consider that child endangerment and so does the court.”
Hitchcock: “Yeah, that’s a little ridiculous and out of context.”
Officer: “Which part of it is out of context?”
Hitchcock: “The entire thing is out of context.”
Officer: “What’s the context?”
Hitchcock: “The context is that that sounds like a bag of… when you put it like that.”
Officer: “Well, nothing I said was an incorrect fact. Lean up against the car.”
Hitchcock: “I have a right to look at my child.”
Officer: “You have the right to lean up against the car. Let’s go back this way.”
Hitchcock: “Why is that woman allowed to like hold my child? Get in the car.”
Officer: “115, have the DCFS supervisor call myself, please.”
(An officer interacts with the baby in the patrol vehicle)
Officer: “All right, you ready to go? I’m here, cutie. Yeah, you want to go sit in the car, huh? We’re going to get you taken care of. Yeah, we’re going to get you taken care of here, up. Look at there, look at all those lights! Yeah, look at all those lights. Yeah, what you think, huh? What you think, huh? You’re a pretty girl. Yeah. You hear them talking on the radio? Yeah, you hear them talking on that radio? Here, you want to listen to the radio?”
(Radio dispatcher: “Attention, new alert received.”) Officer: “That just makes all kinds of noise, doesn’t it? Yeah, it just makes all kinds of noise, doesn’t it? Yeah. Yeah, you listen to the radio, huh? You’re a cutie. Yeah, hi! Can you say hi? Hi, sweet girl. Oh yeah, you like the radio, huh? Are those toes ticklish? What you think, huh? Yeah, sweet baby. Hi, what you think, huh? Yeah, you getting some AC? Yeah, you want to turn the steering wheel? Yeah, you give ’em five! Yeah, you give ’em five! You sure are a cutie. Oh yeah, you want to drive some more? You want to drive some more? Oh, big yawn. Yeah, big yawn. Are you getting sleepies? Are you getting sleepies? Oh, that smile! Look at that smile, awful sweet. Yeah, hi dear. You fascinated with glasses? There you go, I’ll put ’em back on. Peekaboo! Good. Yeah, you got more hair than I had. Say my toes are ticklish. Yeah, did you got them toes? Did you got them baby toes? Oh, them toes. Oh, them toes. Them toes. I see them toes. I’m going to keep them toes. Yeah, push them buttons. I’m going to get you. Are you going to drive some more, huh? You going to drive some more? What’s your name? Are you driving? Where are we going? You going to go? You going to go?”
(Background Police Radio): “Perkins has just got a prosecutor to sign for a blood draw. I said he’s got something on board cuz like he was going… I’m going to Fox Pass.”
Hitchcock would be arrested for first-degree child endangerment, a charge that carried a potential sentence of up to 6 years in prison, and was taken into custody and held on a $2,500 bond.
