Two arrested in child abuse case

BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) The Bay County Sheriff’s Office has arrested two people in Fountain, charging them in relation to alleged abuse involving multiple children.

According to arrest paperwork filed by BCSO, Frankie Dewayne Stallings, 34, is charged with two counts of aggravated child abuse. Investigators wrote in a report that a child told them Stallings would “regularly hit him with open and closed fists and that Mr. Stallings once pinned him to the floor and covered his face with a pillow.”

Rachael Lee Barber, 22, of Fountain, is Stallings’ live-in girlfriend according to investigators. She’s accused of knowing about the alleged abuse and doing nothing to stop it.

Investigators also say multiple children were forced to stay in their rooms “for days at a time as punishment for misbehavior and that they were only fed canned food while they were kept in (their) room.” Barber and Stallings also allegedly denied them use of the bathroom during these times.

One of the children also told investigators they went with Stallings to buy narcotics, and according to arrest paperwork “was able to accurately describe syringes used for injecting narcotics as glass pipes used to smoke them. He also described and demonstrated how to melt pills on a spoon and inject them into your arm. (The child) was able to indicate locations where these narcotics were purchased and the price paid for them.”

One of the victims also described a drink combination involving Xanax and alcohol allegedly given by Stallings “as a sedative” to calm the child down.

Stallings is also accused of making one of the children go along with him on home burglaries. According to investigators the “location and items stolen from these areas were confirmed through past reports.” Stallings would allegedly break out windows of homes and force the child to crawl through them and open a door to the home.

The child also described a disturbing incident involving a female child in which Stallings allegedly struck her on the face so hard, her jaw “was stuck out to the side and wouldn’t move.” Stallings allegedly made the child hold the female down “while he reset her jaw.”

In another incident investigators wrote a female child had been hit so hard “that her head hit the wall and put a hole in the drywall.”

Investigators wrote in an arrest affidavit Barber made one of the children “wear a diaper as punishment because the child ‘needed to listen.'” The child is old enough to not need diapers to prevent accidents.

Stallings and Barber have both made a first appearance before a Bay County judge. They’re both due back in court in August for a formal arraignment on their specific charges.