Northpinellas: Police: Man helped boy take heroin

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Police: Man helped boy take heroin

The 12-year-old from Largo was taken by the Department of Children and Families to a drug treatment center.

By DEBORAH O'NEIL

LARGO -- A 12-year-old boy with needle marks on his arm was removed from a Largo apartment Monday and a 23-year-old man was arrested on charges that he helped the child inject heroin, according to authorities.

Authorities said the boy had needle marks inside his right elbow and told police he had been vomiting blood all morning.

Jason Matthew Bradley, 601 Rosery Road, Apartment 2005, has been charged by Largo police with aggravated child abuse and resisting arrest without violence.

Bradley is not related to the boy, but he and his girlfriend live in the same apartment with the boy and his mother, Kimberly Evans, 36.

Police also charged Bradley with battery on a pregnant female and false imprisonment. He is accused of locking his 18-year-old pregnant girlfriend, Jahaza Kimbell, in a closet, police said. He was being held Tuesday at the Pinellas County Jail in lieu of $50,500 bail. Largo police were alerted to trouble at Bradley's Chaparral apartment around noon Monday by Kimbell's mother, Tina Marie Kimbell of Clearwater. The elder Kimbell said she had been trying to call her daughter, but Bradley would not let the woman come to the phone. Kimbell said she has long been worried about the boy and her daughter, who she said is about two months pregnant.

"I called initially because of concern for my daughter's well-being," she said. "My hidden motive was maybe someone can get in there and see what's going on . . . That little boy has been hurt enough, and my daughter has been hurt enough."

When authorities arrived at the apartment they found Jahaza Kimbell in a closet, said Largo police spokesman Mac Williams. Bradley had punched her in the face, choked her around the throat and broken a false tooth out of her mouth, according to the arrest affidavit.

"He put her in (the closet,)" Williams said. "He didn't want her to call her family or the police. He would not let her leave."

Later, Jahaza Kimbell told police that Bradley had encouraged the child to prepare and take heroin earlier that day, Williams said.

"The previous evening they cooked up the heroin and put it in a syringe," Williams said. "The kid was instructed on how to do it and he did it. Based on some of the things they got from the kid, this was not the first time he did drugs."

Tuesday, Jahaza Kimbell described the situation as a misunderstanding. She said she no longer believes she is pregnant. And she said she got in the closet herself because she was afraid of police. Bradley at one time abused her, but "it's been awhile," she said.

"We made a pact between one another that he wouldn't hurt me physically anymore and we'd sit down and talk about it," she said.

She also denied telling police that Bradley gave the boy drugs.

Evans, the boy's mother, told a reporter Tuesday that Bradley had never given her son drugs. She said her son made the marks on his arm with a sewing needle to get attention.

Williams said officers saw no drugs at the apartment, but could not search it at the time without a warrant. The boy's mother was not at the apartment when officers were there, Williams said.

The child was taken to Largo Medical Center, where his blood was drawn for drug tests, Williams said. He was then released into the custody of the state Department of Children and Families. Monday, the boy was being assessed at a juvenile drug treatment center, said department spokeswoman Elaine Fulton-Jones. The department is investigating the case as neglect, she said.

"He will not go back to his mom," Fulton-Jones said. "Part of our investigation will be where was mom and why wasn't she aware of what was happening to the child and protecting him?"

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