WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL) — A 37-year-old Wichita Falls man gets prison sentences totaling almost 50 years for drug charges and endangering a newborn and his older sister with meth.

Clayton Bingham pleaded guilty to 4 charges in 89th District Court: 2 counts of child endangerment, one for manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance and one for possession of a controlled substance.

Police and CPS investigators said one victim in the care of Bingham and his girlfriend, the mother of the victims, tested positive for meth after birth last year. The victim’s 6-year-old sister also tested positive. Bingham and the mother also tested positive.

Authorities said the girl had previously been removed by CPS from the mother’s care and then permitted to return two months before the drug tests for monitored custody.

Bingham’s other drug charges came in 2021 after he made several calls to his mother and sister from jail after an arrest on another drug charge. Jail and district attorney investigators listened to the recording and said Bingham wanted his sister and mother to make sure his “stuff” at his mother’s house was put away and to delete all messages on his phone.

They said his mother told him “I’m not an idiot” and the stuff was put away in a shed in a jar. They also discussed multiple people who owed Bingham money. They said Bingham also told his mother to make sure his sister does not get into his stuff, and his mother tells him his sister has been on the phone asking people “what do you need, what do you need?”

A few days after the calls, a Texas Ranger and D.A. investigator went to the mother’s home on FM 1740 and got her consent for a search. They say the found one bag of meth in a nightstand drawer in Bingham’s bedroom. They then searched a chicken coop and say they found a glass jar inside a bag hidden in a cinder block that had several more bags of meth.

Bingham has several prior drug convictions, as does the mother of the two children. Her cases are pending.