BATON ROUGE — A Baton Rouge woman accused of second-degree murder after her son died of fentanyl poisoning in 2022 rejected a plea bargain that would have spared her a life term Monday, days after prosecutors turned down a request to let her plead guilty to negligent homicide.

Whitney Ard, 31, faces a mandatory life sentence if convicted of second-degree murder. The state offered to let her plead guilty to manslaughter and take a 30-year sentence.

Defense lawyer Sandra James Page said that since manslaughter carries a prison term of up to 40 years, the 30-year deal wasn't exceptional. She countered by suggesting negligent homicide, which has a five-year term. With credit for time served, Ard could have been eligible for early release before early next year.

The state said it was ready to proceed Monday, but Page joined the case last Thursday and another lawyer involved has an ongoing medical issue. Judge Louise Hines rescheduled the trial for Sept. 9.

Ard was initially arrested on negligent homicide after Mitchell Robinson III died, but investigators learned that in spring 2022 Robinson had been taken to the hospital twice for breathing problem and responded positively to Narcan, a drug used to treat fentanyl overdoses. A grand jury indicted Ard on a second-degree murder charge.

Separately, the child's death prompted a state investigation. The Office of the Inspector General said the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services "took no action whatsoever" after the child's earlier trips to the hospital.

The DCFS staff was not aware of Narcan's use, the inspector general reported in March. 

According to deputies, Ard had taken Robinson to the hospital on April 12, 2022, for "altered mental status and respiratory failure." On June 4, 2022, he was back for "lethargic behavior, acute respiratory failure and seizure disorder." Each time, he was released to his mother without anyone highlighting potential drug-related issues.

Police said that, on June 26, Ard reported that she woke up about 7 a.m. and found the child in her bed cold to the touch, unresponsive and with blue fingertips and a blue mouth and tongue. Efforts to revive him failed. 

The boy's older sister, in an interview with investigators, said her brother had eaten their mother's pills. The coroner said the boy died of acute fentanyl toxicity.

"During the interview, the sibling disclosed that in the past she has seen a lot of pills on her mother's bed and her brother (the decedent), 'ate mom's pills,'" the investigators wrote.

"When her mother found out her brother [ate] some of the pills, her mother whipped him and made him go to bed," they wrote.