A Northern Kentucky mother convicted of murder in the overdose death of her toddler, who ingested fentanyl she bought with a federal stimulus check, has lost her appeal to the Kentucky Supreme Court.
In a unanimous opinion on Thursday, the court upheld 37-year-old Lauren Baker’s conviction and rejected most of her arguments, including that the judge who presided over her trial wrongly overruled a motion seeking to acquit Baker of wanton murder due to insufficient evidence.
A Kenton County jury found Baker guilty in April 2023 of murder, importing fentanyl and trafficking in a controlled substance. She was sentenced to 33 years in prison.
Kenton County Commonwealth’s Attorney Rob Sanders said at trial that Baker was the first person in the county to be convicted of murder for exposing their child to fentanyl.
Baker used $1,200 of a stimulus check she received in March 2021 to buy nearly an ounce of fentanyl from a drug dealer in Cincinnati, court filings state.
Baker and her 2-year-old son took a nap together at her Ludlow home just a few days later. When she awoke in the afternoon, the child was unresponsive lying across her lap with the contents of her purse, including fentanyl and drug paraphernalia, scattered across the bed.
Lauren Baker (center) sits in court April 19, 2023 on trial for murder in connection with her 2-year-old son’s overdose death.
He was later pronounced dead at the Cincinnati Children’s. Prosecutors said the boy had more than 10 times the lethal dose of fentanyl in his system.
A medical examiner determined the child “was able to access something he should not have had access to that resulted in his death,” the court’s opinion states.
Justices reject argument that murder conviction was ‘clearly unreasonable’
Baker argued as part of her appeal that it was “clearly unreasonable” for the jury to convict her of wanton murder and the evidence at trial didn’t show her actions “manifested an extreme indifference to human life,” the opinion states.
While being interviewed by investigators, Baker said she stored her fentanyl in a plastic bag, placed it inside a cigarette box and then placed it inside a pouch, which was kept in a purse that zipped shut.
She would then tie the purse around the headboard of her bed and place it between the wall and bed, court records state.
Her attorneys argued at trial that Baker took substantial precautions to keep opioids out of her children’s reach, noting that she immediately administered Narcan and performed CPR on the child until first responders arrived.
However, prosecutors said Baker was aware fentanyl is deadly but brought it into her home regardless and she knew the child could get into her paraphernalia because he’d done so just a year earlier.
The justices sided with the trial court, writing that she knew the danger of fentanyl but “she decided to store it in a place where her toddler could apparently access it.”
Baker also argued that the jury should’ve been instructed on and allowed to consider a less serious charge of reckless homicide during their deliberations.
In response, the justices ruled that the evidence did not support a reckless homicide instruction and the jurors chose to convict Baker of murder despite also being instructed on a lesser charge of manslaughter.
The Enquirer left a voicemail and email with Baker’s attorney seeking comment on the court’s opinion.
According to the Kentucky Department of Corrections, Baker will become eligible for parole in March 2041.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Kentucky Supreme Court upholds mom’s conviction for toddler’s OD death
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