Greensburg man pleads in child endangerment, assault cases

A Greensburg man pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges that he endangered three children when he left them alone for a week in a bug-infested home with little to eat and no heat.

Ryan Mason, 40, was charged in three separate cases including two in which he was accused of leaving the children, 5-year-old twin girls and a 16-year-old boy, without adult supervision and with drugs present in the Cleveland Street home in late December 2018.

Prosecutors contended Mason and his girlfriend, Destiny Stamps, knowingly endangered the children by demanding they stay hidden upstairs without access to food and the ability to bathe while drug users were permitted to remain in other sections of the house.

Sheriff deputies, during a pretrial hearing last year, testified they found rotting food and garbage, bugs, drug paraphernalia and soiled bathrooms when they went to the home to serve an arrest warrant. The children had matted, unwashed hair and body odor, deputies said.

Mason and Stamps, who police said were attempting to avoid arrest warrants for drug charges, had visited the house and witnessed the conditions in which the children were living, according to police.

In court Wednesday, Mason also pleaded guilty simple assault and harassment for hitting Stamps during an incident on Dec. 23, 2018.

“He has a history of drug abuse and that’s a significant driver here,” said defense attorney Michael DeMatt.

Westmoreland County Judge Christopher Feliciani said Mason could face up to seven years in prison for the most serious offense to which he pleaded guilty. The judge will sentence Mason in about three months. Mason has been in jail for 17 months since his arrest.

In January, Stamps, 37, of Greensburg, pleaded guilty to drug charges and counts of child endangerment. She was sentenced by Feliciani to serve at least 364 days in jail.