Latest Weather Blog
Whitney Ard, mother of 2-year-old who died of fentanyl overdose, sentenced to life in prison
Related Story
BATON ROUGE - After her 2-year-old son died of a fentanyl overdose just days after he had to be revived from another one, Whitney Ard has been sentenced to life in prison for her second-degree murder conviction.
Ard was initially arrested following the 2022 death of her son, Mitchell Robinson III. Ard tried to argue she was no more than negligent in her son's death, but prosecutors argued Robinson's multiple overdoses, one of which required six doses of Narcan to revive him, constituted a murder charge.
Prosecutors say that, in the Ard home, investigators found 2,500 doses of fentanyl that would have been lethal. The child had been hospitalized twice previously.
A jury last month convicted Ard in the June 2022 death of her son. Sentencing had been set for Thursday but was pushed back to Monday after Ard's lawyer asked for a new trial.
Judge Louise Hines rejected the request, and her lawyer Sandra James Page said Friday she would ask the 1st Circuit Court of Appeal to intervene. Page says Ard did not intentionally kill the child, but that his death was due to negligence and that she should only spend five years behind bars.
Prosecutors disagreed.
"This is not an accidental death; it's not a one-time incident. You had two prior overdoses then you had a third one that led to death and all the other circumstances led us to the charge of second-degree murder," District Attorney Hillar Moore said.
Ard's friends and family blamed state social workers and others for the boy's death, saying that the family didn't receive the help it needed. Several were at the sentencing, holding signs outside the courthouse to show their support for Ard.
"I just want to say today we witnessed a gross miscarriage of justice. It's dismissive to real-life issues we have running rampant on the streets and all I wanna say to those of you who feel that this is justice, I pray crippling addiction never falls on your family. No final words," Ard's brother Adrian said.
Ard's arrest and conviction led to the exposing of multiple faults within the Department of Children and Family Services. Amid the investigations into the department, the supervisor overseeing Ard and Robinson's case resigned.
News
