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Carolyn Annette Godkin, 46, the caregiver who was living and working with the Sumralls, told the court she had lost her job and home recently and had moved into the Stennis Avenue home several days ago.
Curtis Spiers, commander of the Narcotics Task Force, said they raided the home based on a tip about Mark Sumrall. He said agents went to the house on Friday and that the father, Henry Sumrall, was not in a wheelchair then. Henry Sumrall was walking freely, Spiers said, and was “verbally obnoxious” to agents.
On Tuesday, they waited until Mark Sumrall left the house and arrested him by stopping him in traffic. Then they served the search warrant at the house and arrested the others.
Spiers said that with the living arrangement at the house, Mark Sumrall’s apartment door opened onto the backyard where the children played. The children passed Mark Sumrall’s door on the way to the play area, Spiers said, and agents found meth material in the backyard as well.
Spiers said he arrested Mark Sumrall in 1994 on cocaine charges, then there was the 2004 conviction.
“We didn’t just randomly pick this house,” Spiers said. “We were there for a reason.”
Agents recovered drug paraphernalia in the apartment that included hypodermic needles and spoons used with drugs. They also found adult pornography in Mark Sumrall’s apartment and on Henry Sumrall’s computer in his bedroom. Computers in the home have been seized for forensic evidence, police said, and Ocean Springs police plan an extensive investigation to make sure the children were not exposed to the pornography. At the time of the seizure, no sexually explicit pictures of children were found.
A hazardous materials cleanup crew collected the meth lab material at the home after agents finished processing the scene.
David Dobbins, who took his 16-month-old daughter to the Ocean Springs Hospital emergency room Tuesday night, said he had a hard time believing what was happening.
The test results were good news for his daughter, and he believes she is OK. He said Wednesday that they had already found another day care to take care of her, but some parents were having trouble.
He said the children at the home in recent months ranged in age from six months to five years. The parents were all working parents, including school teachers and salesmen.
He said he usually walked into the Sumrall house when dropping off his daughter and never saw or smelled anything unusual, though he said it wasn’t his first choice for day care. However, it was close to their home and convenient, and Brenda Sumrall came recommended by family. She had worked and managed the day care at First Baptist on Washington Avenue before it closed, according to her attorney.
Dobbins said what happened Tuesday was unbelievable.
“Police called and told us what was taking place and recommended we take our child to the emergency room and have her checked out,” Dobbins said. “We thought it was a joke at first. But once we got calls from other people and called other people, we realized it wasn’t.
“My frustration is that I don’t think Brenda was intentionally trying to hurt children or put them in harm’s way,” he said. “I think she was trying to take care of her son, trying to keep him out of trouble, and put that ahead of them. And what’s more important than the safety of our children?
“I’m aggravated, frustrated, angry and upset,” Dobbins said. “I’ve had a lot of things to say, but it’s nothing you could print.”
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