In State v. Melendrez, how many child abuse charges are counted when four kids are in a car?

• A. None
• B. Four
• C. Two
• D. One

Answer: (D)

The key idea is that a single act of abuse or endangerment that affects multiple children is counted as one offense, not one offense for each victim. In State v. Melendrez, the court reasoned that the statute operates on the unit of the act itself—one incident of endangering a child—so four children endangered in the same moment fall under a single charge. The logic is that the act constitutes one course of conduct, and charging multiple counts per victim would overstate the offense for a single act. Therefore, even though four kids are in the car, there is only one child abuse charge. If the situation involved separate, distinct acts or if the statute expressly allowed multiple counts per victim, the tally could differ, but in this scenario the count is just one.