Father arrested after children found wandering

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - Deputies with the Volusia Couty Sheriff's say a man is under arrest, after an unattended baby and toddler were found along a busy street.  A driver who was passing by had spotted the children. 

Nine-month-old Rozalynn was smiling and back in the arms of her mother, Veronica Morris, not long after the incident.

"I’m thinking she got bit by an ant when she was crawling yesterday," says Morris, pointing to marks on her legs.

Morris says Rozalynn followed her two-year-old sister, Apollonia, outside their home and toward the busy intersection of Dunn Avenue and Fairmount Road, in Daytona Beach.

"I’ve seen cars speed real fast on this road, and I just thought, what would have happened if they were in that road and someone just decided to speed down," she says. 

When deputies received the call, they came out and discovered the father of the children was asleep in a nearby home. Investigators say the house was filthy and they found drugs on a table.

Morris says 25-year-old Evan Wright is the father of their two kids.  She says she thought he was responsible enough to watch them inside their home, until now.  She says the incident happened while she was out running errands.

"He was wide awake when we had left!"

She says she’s grateful to the driver who spotted the children and called police.

"I’m happy someone was able to find them and stop what was happening."

Morris says she never expected anything like this.

"Terrified! Going a little crazy, because what has happened. Had to call out of school, because of what has happened and now had to call out of work because of all of this."

Morris says that the Florida Department of Children and Families is helping her put the kids in childcare while she and her mother work and while she is studying to be a medical assistant.

Wright is charged with two counts of child neglect and possession of marijuana.