Trial of Baton Rouge mother accused of killing her toddler in fentanyl overdose

BATON ROUGE – Whitney Ard, the mother accused of killing her 2-year-old son in a fentanyl overdose, appeared in court Monday, Sept. 16, court records show.

Whitney Ard, 31, is charged with first-degree murder after her son died of an “acute fentanyl overdose” in June 2022.

Ard was offered a plea deal in April, but she rejected it. According to court records, the state offered Ard a 30-year prison sentence if she pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Officials say the toddler was hospitalized after suffering three drug overdoses. The first incident occurred in April 2022, when the child was admitted for “breathing issues.” Documents show the toddler was resuscitated after receiving a dose of Narcan.

On June 4, 2022, the child was taken to the emergency room again, where he exhibited “lethargic behavior, acute respiratory failure, and seizures,” according to Ard's arrest documents. Through further investigation, officers learned that the toddler was resuscitated at the time after a dose of Narcan.

Finally, at around 10:20 a.m. on June 26, 2022, East Baton Rouge Sheriff's officers responded to a hospital where two-year-old Mitchell Robinson had died.

According to arrest documents, the Children's Advocacy Center (CAD) interviewed the toddler's eldest sister in July 2022. During that interview, the sister revealed that she had seen many pills on her mother's bed in the past and that her brother had “eaten mom's pills” on June 26.

The nurse said that when Ard noticed the child had eaten some of her pills, she hit the toddler and sent him to bed. Ard later took the child to the hospital, where he died.

In an interview with CAD, the sibling said the two-year-old had been “outside and his lips were blue.”

The child's toxicology tests showed that there were 14 nanograms/milliliter of fentanyl in his body. Anything over 3 nanograms/milliliter is considered toxic in adults. In the toddler, the lethal amount was almost five times higher. Fentanyl is the second most powerful opioid. In 2022 alone, 296 people died of a fentanyl overdose in Baton Rouge.

An ongoing problem

Credible sources told UWK that a doctor notified the Louisiana Department of Child & Family Services (DCFS) in both April and June 2022 that the toddler may have overdosed on fentanyl. However, DCFS needed more evidence and reportedly took no action.

On June 17, 2022, that doctor ordered a blood test on the child, which confirmed fentanyl in his system. Despite this evidence, DCFS did not release the child from Ard's care.

Nine days later, the toddler died of a fentanyl overdose.

A report from the state's Office of the Inspector General ultimately listed “multiple failures” by DCSF that contributed to the 2-year-old's death from a fentanyl overdose.

The damning report says systemic problems within DCFS allowed Robinson to slip through the net and points the finger directly at the agency for taking “no action whatsoever” during a nine-day period in which DCFS staff knew Robinson had tested positive for fentanyl.

Overload of cases

The IG's report finds that the DCFS caseworker assigned to Robinson's case was “overworked” and that her supervisor failed to assist with that caseload. It goes on to say that in Robinson's case, there was no verification “that initial personal contacts were made.” The report also alleges that the caseworker's supervisor failed to “work the cases assigned to her while she was on sick leave for an entire week.”