Couple charged after 3 boys found amid filth

By CASEY CORA, Times Staff Writer
Published November 16, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT Ejoma Blakley, 24, was charged with one count of felony child neglect. Derek Mills, 28, was charged with one count of felony child neglect.

TAMPA - A Tampa couple was jailed Thursday after officials said they kept three boys in a filthy, moldy apartment with no edible food.

Ejoma Blakley, 24, and Derek Mills, 28, were each charged with one count of felony child neglect after Hillsborough sheriff's deputies, working with child protection investigators, discovered the filthy living conditions in Apt. 203 at Colonial Park Drive on Wednesday.

Among their findings: a moldy refrigerator and freezer, a yellowing, undetectable substance festering inside a large pot, and dried tobacco leaves strewn across a table and the floor. Investigators said whatever food was inside the apartment was covered in mold.

The boys - ages 2, 3, and 5 - were turned over to a family member. Their relationship to Blakley and Mills was not released.

Blakley and Mills were booked into the Orient Road Jail on Thursday. Jail records show Blakley's bail was set at $2,000. Bail for Mills, facing an additional charge of misdemeanor marijuana possession, was set at $2,500.

[Last modified November 16, 2007, 01:08:14]