On Thursday, April 16th, 2015 at 4:08 p.m. the Pinal County Sheriff’s 9-1-1 Communications Center received a call from a resident who found a young male child running down the street unsupervised. The child appeared to be less than two-years-old. Deputies arrived on scene minutes later and spoke with the reporting party as well as checked the child to ensure he was safe.
Deputies began a neighborhood door to door search with photos of the child which lasted nearly two hours. PCSO Communications Center also completed an “emergency community notification call” also known as “reverse 9-1-1” and an individual identified the child as possibly belonging to a family who lived in the 3100 block of West Hayden Road.
Deputies contacted Larry Michael Lewis who lived at the residence and showed him a picture of the child but he told them it was not his son. Larry told deputies his son was at work with his girlfriend. Larry then proceeded to show deputies a picture of his son on his cell phone. The child was the same and in fact was wearing the same shirt in the photograph as the one he was wearing when the deputy showed Larry the picture.
Larry said that he lived at the residence with his girlfriend Kaitlyn S. Gulish (age 28 of San Tan Valley). During the course of the investigation, it was learned that Larry and Kaitlyn are both the biological parents of the nineteen-month-old child that was found. Kaitlyn was at work at the time the child went missing and had no idea of his disappearance until a friend of hers called to tell her at which point she rushed home.
Larry was extremely impaired by prescription medications. He had difficulty standing and answering questions. Kaitlyn told deputies he was addicted to pain killers and anti-depressant medications. He had a prescription of Zanax filled on April 14th which had 90 pills prescribed.When deputies counted there were only 22 pills left. There was vomit in the master bedroom, feces on the floor in the bedroom of the child and his playroom. The inside of the house was in complete disarray and there were holes in the walls and one of the doors.
Sheriff Paul Babeu stated, “Kaitlyn told deputies, last night she attempted to hide the prescription medication Larry takes as he is an addict and took way too many of the pills during the day. Larry became angry when he discovered his pills were missing, so he punched and kicked holes into the walls and a door of the home until she gave him his pills back. Kaitlyn said she did not trust Larry because of his altered mental state as a result of him abusing the prescription medications and knew she should not have left their child with him but she did anyways.”
Larry Lewis and Kaitlyn Gulish were both arrested for Child Abuse and Endangerment. Additionally, Larry was held on an outstanding arrest warrant related to domestic violence and traffic offenses. The child was turned over to Child Protective Services who in turn allowed another family member to take temporary custody.