A 25-year-old Beaumont man found comatose from a drug overdose in an apartment with a dead child and a dying woman pleaded not guilty Thursday to child cruelty.
Tyler Lawrence Finely was arrested on Dec. 16 after he was discovered in the Sixth Street residence with a 4-year-old girl who had succumbed to unspecified injuries and the woman who may have been her mother or legal guardian.
Along with the cruelty count, Finley is charged with a sentence-enhancing allegation of inflicting corporal injuries on a minor resulting in death.
He was arraigned before Riverside County Superior Court Judge Timothy Hollenhorst, who scheduled a felony settlement conference for Jan. 6 at the Banning Justice Center.
Finley was being held without bail at the Smith Correctional Facility in Banning.
According to Beaumont police, on the afternoon of Dec. 16, officers and paramedics went to Finley's apartment in the 800 block of East Sixth Street after receiving reports of an occupant in medical distress.
First responders found the dead girl, whose identity has not been released, as well as Finley and the woman, 24-year-old Cheyenne Blackerby, who was unconscious and near death, apparently from an overdose on unconfirmed drugs, police said.
She and Finley were taken to a hospital, where she later died, and he staged a recovery, after which he was booked into jail.
No other information was available regarding the circumstances or relationships.
Finley has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.
