Couple makes plea deal on child alcohol charges

A local couple charged with providing alcohol for their children to have a drunken party at the family home entered a plea agreement to lesser charges recently, still maintaining they did not give alcohol to their children.

The defendants, Darrell Lynn Sherrill, 37, and Sheena Marie Sherrill, 31, entered pleas before Circuit Court Judge Bart Stanley to misdemeanor charges of child neglect and were both ordered to serve 30 days of 11-month, 29-day sentences, most of which had already been served while they waited to make bond. They were originally charged with felony reckless aggravated assault, child neglect and contributing to the delinquency of minors.

The Sherrills are charged with allowing their four children, ages 8 through 15, to drink alcohol at the family home in early 2005. Lawmen made the discovery when they were called to the home in response to a disturbance. Two of the children were examined at River Park Hospital, with lawmen saying it appeared some of the children, as well as the parents, were under the influence.

While not denying some of the children may have been under the influence at the time of the raid on their home, the suspects maintained throughout their case that they were not the ones who gave alcohol to their children. Another adult, age 19, was also arrested at the home during the raid.