- Samantha Jones pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter under a plea deal
- Sentenced to three years’ probation and 100 hours of community service
- Jones allegedly told police she was too tired to make a bottle in April last year
- An autopsy found little R.J. died from a lethal combination of drugs
- ‘I loved him, and I have to live with this every day’, a tearful Jones said
A Pennsylvania mother whose 11-week-old son died when he drank her breast milk laced with a lethal cocktail of drugs has avoided jail.
Samantha Jones, 31, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter under a plea deal that includes three years’ probation and 100 hours of community service.
She told police she’d been too tired to make the baby a bottle when he awoke crying at 3am in April last year and instead breastfed him, an affidavit said.
Jones told police that she had been prescribed methadone because of an addiction to painkillers, that she had taken it during her pregnancy, and that she was taking it at the time of the baby’s death, the affidavit said
Painkiller addict Jones told police that she had been prescribed methadone because of an addiction to painkillers, that she had taken it during her pregnancy, and that she was taking it at the time of the baby’s death, the affidavit at the time of her son’s death said.
Following her sentencing Jones said: ‘I never wanted this to happen. I loved my little boy more than anything. I loved him, and I have to live with this every day.’
The affidavit stated that Jones said she primarily had been breastfeeding the baby, but switched to formula a few days before the baby’s death, saying he wasn’t getting enough milk
Defense attorney Louis R. Busico said Jones was ‘strangled with grief and tortured by loss’, The Bucks County Courier reports.
Her baby, named R.J., died from a combination of methadone, amphetamine and methamphetamine, the Bucks County District Attorney’s office said.
Prosecutor Kristin McElroy said: ‘Certainly her conduct was grossly negligent. She had resources, there were bottles in the house, and there were other adults in the house.’
A few hours after his feed, the baby was pale and had bloody mucus coming from his nose, she told police.
Jones’ mother began CPR at the instruction of a dispatcher after they called 911, the affidavit said.
Police arrived at the home in New Britain, about 35 miles north of Philadelphia, to find the baby in cardiac arrest. He was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he died.
Samantha Jones, 31, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter under a plea deal that includes three years’ probation and 100 hours of community service
The affidavit stated that Jones said she primarily had been breastfeeding the baby, but switched to formula a few days before the baby’s death, saying the infant wasn’t getting enough milk.
Other parents have faced charges over drug-laced breastmilk in recent years.
In 2016, two former Arizona TV news reporters were sentenced to a year of probation and suspended 30-day jail terms after cocaine was found in their baby’s system.
And in 2012, a California woman whose infant son died after ingesting methamphetamine-laced breast milk was sentenced to six years in prison.
