Pair charged with altering money orders worth $9 to pay $2500 apartment deposit, woman charged with child neglect after allegedly leaving three children under 7 alone for 1.5 hours

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Aja Valyncia Nelloms, 25, and Timothy Joseph Nelson, 25, were arrested yesterday and charged with altering money orders purchased for $9 to pay a $2,500 apartment deposit and then refusing to make up the difference after they were notified of the problem. The deputy investigating the case reported that when he went to their apartment, he found three children under the age of 7 alone, and Nelloms reportedly had not answered five calls from her child’s phone or additional calls from the deputy’s phone; Nelloms later reportedly said Nelson was in Miami and she had gone across town to pick up another child. Nelloms was also arrested on a warrant for violating probation.

On August 23, Nelloms and Nelson allegedly gave five $500 Western Union money orders to the victim as a deposit on an apartment in the Linton Oaks area; the victim told the responding Alachua County Sheriff’s Deputy that she often receives Western Union money orders, and these appeared to be legitimate, so she allowed the pair and their children to move in.

On September 3, the victim found out from her bank that the five money orders were only worth a total of $9.

A subpoena to Western Union reportedly revealed that the money orders had been purchased for $9 in a grocery store in Lauderhill, Florida, that was about 18 miles from Nelson’s previous address and 0.4 miles from Nelloms’s previous address.

The victim told the deputy that she confronted Nelloms, who said she didn’t know the money orders were fraudulent but allegedly refused to pay the victim the difference. As of October 31, the victim said, the pair had not made any rent payments.

The deputy went to the apartment on October 31, and post Miranda, Nelloms reportedly said she didn’t know anything about the fraudulent money orders and said Nelson would be back the next day.

The next day, the deputy went to the apartment at about 2:50 p.m. and nobody answered the door, but he saw a young child looking through the blinds. The deputy reported that he gestured to the child to open the door, and he did. The boy, seven years old, reportedly told the deputy that Nelloms was not home and that he was watching his four-year-old and two-year-old siblings; he wasn’t sure how long Nelloms had been gone. The deputy reported that the child called Nelloms five times before his phone died, but none of the calls were answered; the first call was at 2:40 p.m., 10 minutes before the deputy arrived. The deputy also reported that the two-year-old was wearing a soiled diaper that was “saturated and sagging.” The deputy reportedly charged the seven-year-old’s phone to view his call log and find numbers for family members.

At about 3:15 p.m., the deputy starting calling Nelloms and Nelson, but he reported that neither answered the phone.

At about 3:50 p.m., Nelloms reportedly arrived via Uber with a fourth child; she said she had picked up the child for a friend on the east side of Gainesville, about a 30-minute drive. Nelloms reportedly said she believed she had left between 2:00 and 2:30 p.m. and said she had asked her “mother” to watch the children while she was gone. When the deputy asked to see the communication on her phone, Nelloms reportedly changed her story and said her “mother” had dropped off clothes for the children at about 1 p.m. and had agreed at that time to watch the children. The deputy asked for the “mother’s” phone number, and Nelloms gave it to him.

The deputy reported that he called the “mother,” who said she is not Nelloms’s mother but Nelloms looks to her as a mother figure. She reportedly said she didn’t know anything about Nelloms leaving her children home alone and needing someone to watch them.

When the deputy told Nelloms that her friend disputed her story, Nelloms reportedly admitted she had not asked her friend for help and she knew what she did was wrong and did not think she would be gone as long as she was.

The deputy reported that the apartment was “mostly orderly,” there was food, and the children appeared to be healthy, but they had been left alone for at least 1.5 hours without supervision. The seven-year-old knew to call 911 for help but didn’t know what to do when his phone died. The deputy reported that the child apologized several times to his mother and expressed fear that he would get in trouble for talking to the deputy.

The deputy opened a report with the Department of Children and Families but did not arrest Nelloms at the time because she was pregnant and due to give birth within a few days.

Nelloms also had an arrest warrant for violating probation on a 2023 conviction for stealing almost $2,000 from an elderly man she was working for as a caregiver; she never reported to her probation officer after being put on probation and moved without telling the probation officer where she was going. The warrant was issued in August 2023.

Nelloms has one felony conviction (non-violent) and three misdemeanor convictions (non-violent) and is on probation. Judge Meshon Rawls ordered her held without bond for violating probation, set bail on the three child neglect charges at $90,000, and set bail on the fraud charges at $30,000.

Nelson has no criminal convictions. Judge Rawls set bail on the fraud charges at $5,000.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.