diff --git a/code/ObjFileImporter.cpp b/code/ObjFileImporter.cpp
index d96d8e0db..f8568391d 100644
--- a/code/ObjFileImporter.cpp
+++ b/code/ObjFileImporter.cpp
@@ -591,15 +591,12 @@ void ObjFileImporter::appendChildToParentNode(aiNode *pParent, aiNode *pChild)
 
 	// Assign parent to child
 	pChild->mParent = pParent;
-	size_t sNumChildren = 0;
-	(void)sNumChildren; // remove warning on release build
 	
 	// If already children was assigned to the parent node, store them in a 
 	std::vector<aiNode*> temp;
 	if (pParent->mChildren != NULL)
 	{
-		sNumChildren = pParent->mNumChildren;
-		ai_assert( 0 != sNumChildren );
+		ai_assert( 0 != pParent->mNumChildren );
 		for (size_t index = 0; index < pParent->mNumChildren; index++)
 		{
 			temp.push_back(pParent->mChildren [ index ] );