Drugs, weapons found at Shore day-care center

A drug task force turned up marijuana plants and 10 weapons, including an illegal sawed-off shotgun, at an Eastern Shore day-care center last week, authorities said.

Virginia State Police said yesterday that a resident of the private residence near Eastville, Deandre L. Dunton, 30, was arrested last week on two drug charges and a weapons charge.

State police declined to say whether the home is still operating as a day-care facility. But Dunton's lawyer said last night that the licensed center operating inside the home is continuing to accept children.

"The people say it is one of the best places they have kept their children," John Wescoat Sr. said.

Wescoat said the center is licensed to Pandora C. Kellam, Dunton's mother, who has not been charged. No one could be reached last night after hours with the Northampton County Department of Social Services, which inspects the state-licensed facility.

Wescoat said Dunton kept a gun collection in his locked bedroom and that no distribution of the drug occurred at the home. The guns were not accessible to the children, he said. Dunton works as a chef and is not involved in caring for the children, the lawyer said.

The day-care center is in the 7000 block of Reedtown Lane, a dead-end road a few miles north of Eastville and east of U.S. 13, the main route on the Eastern Shore.

State police spokesman Sgt. Michelle A. Cotten said yesterday that the home was pointed out by one of several people arrested in a task-force sweep of the Eastern Shore last week.

"Someone pointed out the marijuana growing in the backyard, and officers asked to enter the home," she said.

Police said they found 74 plants.

Cotten said the investigation is continuing.

Contact Bill McKelway at (804) 649-6601 or .