BATON ROUGE — Whitney Ard, the mother accused in the fentanyl overdose death of her 2-year-old, was found guilty of second-degree murder today.
Whitney Ard’s, 31, son died of an “acute fentanyl overdose” in June 2022.
Ard was offered a plea deal in April but turned it down. According to court records, the state offered if Ard pleaded guilty to manslaughter, she would face a 30-year sentence.
East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore said in his nearly 50 years working in the criminal justice system that fentanyl is the most dangerous and deadly substance he’s experienced.
“This is an extremely powerful drug, even powerful for those who are addicted to it and use it often. But you can imagine what happens when a two-year-old comes in contact with even a small amount of residue,” Moore said. “In this case, it caused a young child’s death. His future’s gone because of some extremely bad practices of his parent.”
Moore noted that fentanyl overdoses take three times the amount of lives than homicides in Baton Rouge.
“I can’t think of any other drug or enemy of some sort that we’ve had to fight that has caused so much disruption and pain across the board and will leave a generational swamp of damage in its path that some families will take generations to recover from,” Moore said.
“These are not easy cases to make. And we’re not saying this was a bad lady. We did say that she used very poor judgment and did not care enough for this child and put this child in harm’s way. But we’re not saying that she intended for her child to be killed. That’s not what the case was about. It was about her completely, criminally, and overly negligent actions repeatedly that caused a child to die.”
Officials say the toddler was rushed to a hospital after experiencing a drug overdose three separate times with the first instance happening in April 2022 when the child was admitted for “breathing issues.” Documents show the toddler was revived after a Narcan dose.
Then on June 4, 2022, the child was once again brought to the emergency room where he displayed “lethargic behavior, acute respiratory failure, and seizure disorder,” according to Ard’s arresting documents. Through further investigation, officials learned the toddler was revived after a Narcan dose at that time.
Finally, on June 26th, 2022, East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s deputies responded to a hospital around 10:20 a.m. for a 2-year-old, Mitchell Robinson, who had died.
According to arrest records, the Children’s Advocacy Center (CAD) interviewed the toddler’s oldest sister in July of 2022. During that interview, the sibling disclosed that in the past, she had seen a lot of pills on her mother’s bed, and her brother, “ate mom’s pills,” on June 26th.
The sister said after Ard realized the child had eaten some of her pills, she whipped the toddler and made him go to bed. Later on, Ard took the child to the hospital where he died.
The sibling said the 2-year-old was “outside and his lips were blue,” during the interview with CAD.
The toxicology on the child showed a presence of 14 nanogram/milliliter of Fentanyl in his system. Anything over 3 nanogram/milliliter in adults is considered toxic. The toddler was nearly 5 times the lethal level. Fentanyl ranks as the second most powerful opioid. In 2022 alone, 296 people died of fentanyl overdoses in Baton Rouge.
An ongoing issue
Credible sources told UWK that a doctor notified the Louisiana Department of Child & Family Services, or DCFS, both in April and June 2022 that the toddler may have overdosed on Fentanyl. However, DCFS needed more proof and allegedly did nothing.
On June 17th, 2022, that doctor ordered a blood test on the child which confirmed Fentanyl in his system. Despite that proof, DCFS did not remove the child from Ard’s care.
Nine days later, the toddler died from a Fentanyl overdose.
Ultimately, a report filed by the Office of State Inspector General’s Office detailed “multiple failures” by DCSF that contributed to the fentanyl overdose death of the two-year-old.
The scathing report says systemic problems within DCFS led to Robinson slipping through the cracks and points the finger directly at the agency for taking “no action whatsoever” during a nine-day period where DCFS personnel knew that Robinson tested positive for fentanyl.
Overburdened caseload
The IG’s report sites that the DCFS caseworker assigned to Robinson’s case was “overburdened” and that her supervisor failed to assist with that caseload. It goes on to say that there was a failure to check on “whether initial in-person contacts were made” in Robinson’s case. The report also claims that the caseworker’s supervisor failed “to manage the caseworker’s assigned cases while she was out on sick leave for an entire week.”
DCFS personnel were not trained on the medical use of Narcan, a drug used to reverse the impacts of opioid overdoses, the report said. The department “did not initially recognize the significance of the child having been revived on two occasions with (Narcan),” according to the report.
Toxicology screens used by the hospital also didn’t test for synthetic opioids, which includes fentanyl, leading to initial negative results that “caused confusion among DCFS personnel not familiar with the medical use of Narcan.” However, an email in the IG’s report from an unnamed child welfare manager acknowledged the hospital’s testing and noted “…There are serious concerns regarding the safety of the child.”
DCFS has since changed its policy to increase the overall response levels of cases involving children and drugs.
DCFS Secretary Marketa Walters also resigned from the agency in November of 2022.
The new policy states that, ”all cases of abuse/neglect involving a child age three and under made by a medical provider to DCFS will be accepted for investigation. The priority response will be set in accordance with the danger posed to the child. However, all cases where there is concern regarding a child’s consumption or ingestion of a controlled dangerous substance will automatically be assigned a P1 priority (24-hour response).”
Prior to the child’s death, East Baton Rouge narcotics agents also raided Whitney Ard and Michell Robinson Jr’s home, the child’s father, in May of 2022. They found roughly four ounces of fentanyl, crystal methamphetamine, more than $25,000 in cash, a pistol, and an untraceable “ghost gun,” according to arrest warrants.
Robinson Jr. was convicted in that case and pleaded guilty to multiple drug charges, including possession of meth, fentanyl, and heroin.
Second-degree murder comes with an automatic life sentence in Louisiana. Ard’s sentencing date is set for October 17.
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