Woman pleads guilty in toddler’s death

A woman who pleaded guilty to failing to provide the necessaries of life after her 13-month-old son died of an drug overdose in their Sherbrook Street apartment will serve a sentence of house arrest.

Latasha Stewart, in her mid-30s, was given the conditional sentence order of two years less a day by provincial court Judge Malcolm McDonald last Wednesday over the Dec. 29, 2022 death of her son Romeo.

“The circumstances in this case are truly tragic. As a result of an adult’s careless drug use, a 13-month-old boy lost his life,” said McDonald.

“It’s hard to imagine a clearer … lesson in the dangers of street-drug use in a household with young children present (than) in this case.”

Loved ones of the child’s father, who died of an overdose just three weeks after his son’s death, were visibly upset with decision; several left the courtroom before the judge was finished issuing the sentence.

Defence lawyer Jeremy Kostiuk urged McDonald to allow Stewart to serve a conditional sentence, arguing she has spent more than a year in a residential recovery program for women and has made great efforts to turn her life around, including by maintaining sobriety. The Crown sought two years of real jail time.

McDonald agreed that Stewart should serve her sentence in the community. She’s to continue living at the home for women until she successfully completes her recovery program, then notify her sentence supervisor and obtain permission to move from there.

She is bound by an absolute curfew, meaning she’s not allowed to leave the recovery house other than in medical emergencies or for approved appointments, court-related meetings or programming such as counselling, volunteering or paid work through the recovery home.

“The impulse for retribution and punishment, as understandable as it is, must be tempered by all the principles of sentencing,” said McDonald said.

He said there is a clear rift between Stewart and the father’s family over her responsibility for the child’s death. The family wasn’t advised of funeral arrangements and doesn’t know the boy’s final resting place.

McDonald urged that the other side of the family be informed so they can appropriately mourn.

Stewart’s mother had been visiting the apartment at about 11:30 p.m. on Dec. 29, 2022 and had just left, when minutes later, Stewart called her to say Romeo wasn’t breathing.

The woman told Stewart to call 911, but when she returned to the apartment minutes later Stewart had not yet put in the call.

Stewart then called 911 and emergency responders arrived within minutes. A paramedic asked Stewart if “there was a chance” Romeo had been exposed to narcotics or opioids and she told them there was.

Paramedics administered naloxone to the child and spent 20 minutes trying to resuscitate him before taking him to Children’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead a short time later.

After learning Romeo had died, Stewart went to a washroom and overdosed on a mixture of heroin and fentanyl. She was resuscitated by hospital staff.

Police officers and an investigator with the medical examiner’s office went to the apartment and found a straw, which was underneath a baby toy, that later tested positive for fentanyl and two pieces of tin foil that tested positive for fentanyl and carfentanyl.

An autopsy confirmed the presence of carfentanyl, cocaine and cocaine metabolites in the child’s system.

When questioned by police, Stewart admitted to using cocaine and heroin and that she was aware there was cocaine in her kitchen and heroin in a bathroom cabinet.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca