The parents of an infant who died in February both waived their right to a preliminary hearing Tuesday before Magisterial District Judge Stephen Bayer, Tamaqua.
Alyssa L. Shellhammer, 24, and Joseph E. Kuhla, 22, both of Tamaqua, each are charged with four counts of child endangerment and reckless endangerment. Their bails remain set at $10,000 unsecured, and they await formal arraignment in Schuylkill County Court.
They are the parents of 6-week-old Bronx, who was found unresponsive Feb. 5 after allegedly sleeping in a bed with both parents and several other children.
In court papers, police wrote the sleeping arrangement is not recommended as safe for infants and that the parents received literature from a hospital concerning the risk of accidental suffocation during sleep with this practice, yet still chose to use that arrangement.
Officers and emergency medical services were dispatched to the family's Arlington Street home at 2:33 a.m. for a report of a child that wasn't breathing.
Bronx was taken to St. Luke's Hospital-Miner's Campus, Coaldale, by ambulance and CPR was performed on him but he did not awaken and was pronounced dead in the emergency room at 2:58 a.m., arrest papers stated.
When police interviewed the couple in March, Kuhla told police he and Shellhammer brought Bronx into a full-size bed with them and their four other children, court papers state.
Shellhammer related the same story, noting that once Kuhla woke her up, she gave a bottle to the crying child and noticed one of the children had their head on Bronx's stomach and Bronx was unresponsive, court papers stated.