(WBBM NEWSRADIO) – The state’s child-welfare agency has taken custody of a 3-year-old after Will County authorities found guns – including one stored inside a child-safety seat -- in a vehicle driven by a Carbondale woman.
Will County deputies on Sunday pulled over a vehicle for speeding and having a defective windshield near Interstate 57 and Manhattan-Monee Road in Peotone Township, the sheriff’s office said in a news release. After they smelled a “strong odor” of marijuana and observed a 3-year-old in a safety booster seat, deputies searched the vehicle.
They reportedly found an AR-15 in the trunk, a weapon that later was determined to have been stolen from police in southern Illinois. In the drawer of the booster seat in which the child was sitting, police found a 9-mm handgun, the sheriff’s office said.
Nicole Horton, 24, was arrested and charged with one count of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, one count of possession of a stolen vehicle, and other gun-related offenses.