Police: Man left tots tied up while he watched basketball

By Torey Van Oot

Friday, June 12, 2009 | 12:30 p.m.

A man accused of leaving two toddlers tied up in a southwest valley garage said he was upset that he had to baby-sit his girlfriend’s children and went to a bar to watch a basketball game, a Metro Police report said. He appeared in Clark County District Court this morning.

Jonathan Weaver, 20, was arrested on charges of child abuse and endangerment, kidnapping and attempted murder after police broke into the apartment complex garage in the 10000 block of South Spencer Street about 8:15 p.m. Tuesday and found the 1- and 2-year-old children tied up in their car seats, police said.

The children, who had been left in the garage for more than two hours, were also gagged with cloth and a shirt was pulled over the younger child’s face, police said.

Weaver, who appeared in court this morning, will return for a preliminary hearing on June 26. A status hearing to set bail was scheduled for June 16.

The toddlers were discovered after a woman walking through the parking lot of the complex where Weaver lives heard crying coming from the garage and alerted police, authorities said.

Their mother, Amy Beltran, 20, told police she asked Weaver to watch her sons while she attended night school.

Weaver said he was upset he had to baby-sit the children because he had wanted to watch a Las Vegas 51s baseball game, according to the police report. But after leaving the children, he went to a neighborhood bar, the report said.

Weaver initially told police he had left the children with Beltran’s parents, but then said he left them in the garage while he went and watched an NBA finals basketball game at a bar, the report said. He reportedly told officers he watched the second half of the game, but didn’t realize how long he was gone, the report said.

Weaver reportedly told police he didn’t think leaving the children in the garage was a big deal because they have had “camp outs” there in the past.

He said he played with them inside the garage for about 20 minutes and waited for them to fall asleep before leaving, the report said.

Weaver told police he “could not believe what he was about to do next,” but he decided to tie the children because he was afraid they would grab tools stored in the garage and hurt themselves, according to the report.

Beltran, who is pregnant with Weaver’s child, is not facing charges, police said.

She told police she often leaves her sons in Weaver’s care and had no concerns about Weaver or his parenting skills.