A 3-year-old father has been charged with Negligent homicide charges in the deaths of his two young children who drowned after the truck they were in rolled into a pond.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports charges were filed against Jonathan Daniel Welborn in connection with the deaths of 2-year-old Sofia Welborn and 6-month-old Zane Welborn.
Welborn, as well as 26-year-old Brittany Nichole Hairston, face counts of first-degree endangering the welfare of a minor.
Saline County authorities say that Officers were dispatched to a house Wednesday night after Hairston reported the truck missing with the two children inside.
Deputies later found the truck submerged with its lights on in a pond across the road. Officials found the children unresponsive, still strapped in their car seats.
Deputies found that Welborn and Hairston were playing pool inside the house when the truck rolled across the highway and into the pond. The children had apparently been left alone for about 30 minutes.
Evidence showed Welborn had been driving the truck with the two children inside before the incident happened.
He was tested for drugs and admitted to smoking methamphetamine that same day.
Both Welborn and Hairston are to appear in court Aug. 8.