GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — One of the owners of Monkey Run Daycare in Cedar Springs was sentenced Monday on an aggravated domestic violence charge.
Thomas Cronkright will serve four months in jail and two years probation for assaulting his wife and pointing a gun at her while she held an 8-month-old child.
Presiding over the case, 63rd District Court Judge Sara Smolenski stressed the seriousness of the crime as she handed down the sentence.
"This is a daycare," Smolenski said. "There are kids that are there that are being cared for, and you act in a way of violence."
The sentencing came after Cronkright pleaded guilty to the charge on May 17.
Cronkright's wife Ericka advocated for her husband at the sentencing, saying his substance abuse made him a different man from the one she knew.
"In lieu of this incident, it has turned me back and to my understanding it has turned him back into the people that we were before, and to the parents that we were before," she said.
The incident happened on May 1 at the home daycare in Cedar Springs.
Kent County deputies said Cronkright's wife ran with the child to a neighbor's house and called 911. Cronkright then left the home, leaving two 2-year-olds alone at the daycare.
All children were unharmed and returned to their families. The wife was taken to a hospital with facial injuries.
Police later found Cronkright at a family member's home and arrested him.
A day after the incident, the daycare's license was suspended by the state.
An investigation by both the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) and the Child Care Licensing Bureau (CCLB) found the owners were allegedly using drugs at the home, not storing ammunition separately from their firearms and not properly supervising the children in their care.
In an interview with LARA, Cronkright's wife allegedly admitted that they both use methamphetamine, and that Thomas uses cocaine. She said they do not use drugs when children are in their care, but that they have closed the daycare in the past due to their drug use.
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