MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — A Rockingham man is facing a homicide charge after a baby found unresponsive in his hotel room over the weekend died.
Geames Kena Ratliff, 37, of Wilderness Drive, was charged late Wednesday afternoon with a count of murder/homicide by child abuse, according to a statement from the Myrtle Beach Police Department.
That charge, if convicted, carries a sentence of 20 years to life, online South Carolina court records show.
WMBF reports that police responded to a call about an unresponsive infant Aug. 25 at the Camelot by the Sea hotel. During a search of the room, officers with the Myrtle Beach Police Department reportedly found a white substance near the boy's bottle that tested positive for cocaine.
Police said there were four other children in the room, WMBF reports.
A spokesman for MBPD would not confirm if Ratliff is the child’s father.
According to the television station, the unresponsive child was taken to Grand Strand Medical Center in critical condition. That child died Tuesday morning, Horry County Coroner Robert Edge confirmed to the station Wednesday.
Ratliff and 32-year-old Laquena Lanishia Bostic, of Hamlet, were arrested and each charged with five counts of unlawful neglect of a child or helpless person by a legal guardian and one count of possession of cocaine.
Ratliff is in the J. Reuben Long Detention Center and is scheduled to appear at a bond hearing at 9 a.m. Thursday. The hearing will be live streamed by WMBF.
Bostic reportedly has been bailed out.
Neither Ratliff nor Bostic have any prior convictions in North Carolina, according to records with the N.C. Department of Public Safety Division of Adult Correction.
Police say the case is still under investigation.
All defendants facing criminal charges are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
(This story has been update 5:54 p.m. 8-28-19)
