Walter Alexis Semidey was taken into custody by Newton County Sheriff's Office investigators Tuesday and charged with sexual exploitation of children and computer pornography. According to a statement released by the NCSO, Semidey reportedly began communicating with the "girl" via the internet and had been doing so over a two-month period.

Man leaves child in car
A concerned citizen may have saved a toddler's life Tuesday afternoon when he pulled the little boy from a car sitting in the heat of the Kroger parking lot.
An officer from the Covington Police Department was approached by a man in the Kroger parking lot at around 2:45 p.m. The man was holding a child in his arms, and according to reports, the boy had a flushed face and was lethargic and sweating profusely. The man carrying the child reportedly told the officer that he had noticed the boy sitting in a van in the parking lot. The fan was not running and the passenger side windows were only partially rolled down. Reports indicate the temperature outside that day was 89 degrees.

The concerned citizen allegedly told the officer that he had been looking for the child's parents for the past 10 minutes to no avail. He also had a bottle of water and was allowing the toddler to drink from it and splashing some of it on his face in an effort to cool him down.

Eventually the little boy began responding and started to communicate with the man and the officer. The child was placed in the back seat of the officer's patrol car where there was air conditioning while the search for his parents continued.

The officer did a registration query on the van and it returned registered to Eva Elizabeth Norman. The officer requested that a Kroger employee page Norman to the front of the store and a man, identified as 30-year-old Ran Justin Norman, came to the front and reportedly asked the officer if there was a problem with his wife. He was told that his son was in the van for 10 to 15 minutes and that it was potentially over 100 degrees inside the van.

Norman reportedly told the officer that he "forgot his son was in the van" and that he only ran into Kroger to speak briefly with his wife.

When asked how long he had been in the store, Norman allegedly told the officer that he had been inside no longer than three or four minutes. The officer asked him if his wife was still inside and he reportedly told the officer that she was. Again, the store employee was asked to page Eva Norman, and again no one responded to the page. Norman reportedly told the officer that he had called his wife and left her a voicemail.

Roughly 15 minutes later, a female, identifying herself as Eva Norman approached the officer but she was coming from the area of Mayfield Hardware and not Kroger. She allegedly told the officer that she had not been inside Kroger but had been at a doctor's appointment on Elm Street where her husband had dropped her off approximately 30 minutes prior.

When informed of the incident involving her son, she allegedly began to cry and told the officer that her husband takes prescription medication for pain and that he took several pills before leaving the house.

Ran Norman was arrested and charged with obstruction and cruelty to children. En route to the Newton County Detention Center he allegedly told the officer, "I don't know why my wife told you the truth about where she was because I told her to lie to you." He also reportedly told the officer that he was scared that he would be arrested for driving without a license since his driver's license was not valid. According to reports, Norman further complained to the officer that his probation would be revoked as a result of his arrest.