Caregiver charged in death of young man left in vehicle

The man, calling from his car on Tuesday, said he was responsible for the death of the person in his vehicle.

The Johnston County 911 operator told Rogers Lee Inge Jr., 55, of Warrenton to stop driving. He pulled into the parking lot at the fire station at 9039 Cleveland Road and waited for deputies and EMS personnel.

When they arrived, they found Dotarious Batts, 22, also of Warrenton, dead.

Inge explained that Batts was a special-needs adult who required full-time care and that he was the young man’s caregiver through a company called Universal Health Care.

Inge said he was also a janitor at Cleveland High School and had carried Batts with him that day. When he went inside the school at 8 a.m., he left Batts in the vehicle with the windows up and the engine off, Inge told deputies.

Inge said Batts was fine when he checked on him at 10 a.m. But Inge said he didn’t return to his vehicle until 4:17 p.m., and when he did, he found Batts dead.

The high temperature in Johnston County on Tuesday was 79 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. But with the windows up and engine off, the temperature inside the vehicle would have gotten much higher.

The Johnston County Sheriff’s Office arrested Inge and charged him with involuntary manslaughter, which carries a minimum sentence of 13 months and a max of 20 years in North Carolina.

The Johnston County Public Schools said Inge was no longer an employee of the district.

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