NKY mom, who admitted spending stimulus check on fentanyl, guilty of murder in son's death
Lauren Baker woke up from a nap on March 18, 2021, to find her 2-year-old son, Jaxson Vogt, lying across her legs unresponsive. The contents of her purse, including the fentanyl she bought just a few days before, were scattered across the bedroom.
The toddler was later pronounced dead at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. He had more than 10 times the lethal dose of fentanyl in his system, prosecutors said.
A Kenton County jury found Baker guilty of murder, importing fentanyl and trafficking in a controlled substance. On Tuesday, the jury recommended she serve a total sentence of 33 years in prison.
Baker, 35, is the first person in the county to be convicted of murder for exposing their child to fentanyl, according to Kenton County Commonwealth's Attorney Rob Sanders.
"Jaxson paid for his mother's fentanyl use with his own life," Sanders said.
On March 13, 2021, Baker went to Cincinnati to buy fentanyl with money from her federal stimulus check, according to a police report.
She then returned to Northern Kentucky with $1,200 worth of fentanyl and gave quantities of the drug to two other people, including the child's father, prosecutors said.
Baker admitted that, five days later, she "took a shot" of fentanyl prior to taking a nap with Jaxson at their home on Stokesay Avenue in Ludlow, the report states.
Earlier in the trial, prosecutors said Baker was aware fentanyl is deadly but brought it into her home regardless. They said she also knew Jaxson could get into her paraphernalia because just a year earlier the toddler got hold of a burnt spoon Baker used to heat fentanyl.
Baker had a system for storing her fentanyl and she took substantial precautions to keep opioids out of her children's reach, John Beaulieu, Baker's public defender, said in court last week.
Beaulieu said Baker, upon noticing that Jaxson was unresponsive, immediately administered Narcan and performed CPR until first responders arrived. He said Baker was grief-stricken and inconsolable when police reached the home.
Around the time of Jaxson's death, he added, Baker was receiving treatment at a methadone clinic because she suffered from opioid use disorder.
Much of the evidence presented against Baker was evidence she provided to investigators herself, Ashley Graham, another public defender who represented Baker, said in court on Tuesday.
Graham noted that Baker cooperated with the investigation and waived her right to an attorney during a nearly two-hour interview with Sanders and a detective at the Ludlow Police Department.
Baker's attorneys previously tried to have Sanders disqualified from prosecuting the case at trial due to his involvement with that interrogation, court records show. That request was ultimately denied.
A final sentencing hearing has been scheduled for June 5 before Kenton County Circuit Judge Kate Molloy.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Mom who spent stimulus check on fentanyl convicted in son's OD death
