A woman faces multiple child cruelty charges in Douglas County of the state she allegedly left six children in for 12 hours by themselves.
DOUGLAS COUNTY, Ga. — A woman in Douglas County faces numerous child cruelty charges after she was accused of leaving six children alone without food in unsanitary conditions, allegedly to the point that a child reported his 1-year-old sibling began eating ants and roaches.
Warrants for six counts of second-degree child cruelty allege 37-year-old Sherry Magby left five children under the ages of 10 under the supervision of a 10-year-old at a home on James D. Simpson Avenue for 12 hours on March 29.
They say she caused “cruel and excessive mental and physical pain” to each of them. They were identified as a 1-year-old, a 2-year-old, a 4-year-old, a 6-year-old, an 8-year-old, and a 10-year-old left in charge. The warrants do not make clear Magby’s relation to the children.
The warrants note that responding officers at the home “immediately detected a strong, foul odor consistent with unsanitary living conditions.”
“The residence was further observed to be in a state of significant disorder, with every room in disarray, further evidencing unsuitable living conditions,” the warrants add.
Booking records show she was taken into custody on April 2 at the Douglas County Jail.
One neighbor, who did not want to be identified, told 11Alive that the night police responded to the home, the children showed up at her yard, saying they could not wake the one-year-old.
Multiple neighbors told 11Alive they rarely saw Magby at home.
“I thought everything was OK, but I just know she’s never home, she’s never there, and it’s just sad, sad,” said one of the neighbors who was not comfortable being identified.
The neighbor said that if she had known the children did not have food, she would have fed them.
Court records indicate Magby has at least one previous cruelty to children charge, in a 2023 case where she was accused of cutting her son — not one of the six children left at the home in March — in the back with a pocket knife by way of throwing it at him as he was “running out of the house trying to get away from her.”
That case, which included charges of aggravated assault and aggravated battery, has not yet been resolved; it has a trial date scheduled for May 11.
