Police: Woman charged with killing son had taken drugs
Apr. 13—A Hartselle woman charged in the stabbing death of her 8-year-old son tested positive for amphetamines on the day of the incident, according to a search warrant return filed this week.
Jennifer Nicole Long, 41, is charged with capital murder in the March 16 stabbing death of her son and is also accused of stabbing her 69-year-old father.
In a search warrant request filed after Long's arrest, Decatur police Investigator Caleb Brooks asked the court to authorize the taking of blood samples from the defendant.
"During the booking process," Brooks said in an affidavit, "Jennifer was given a urine drug screen and she tested positive for amphetamines and buprenorphine. The blood draw samples could determine the levels of the narcotics present in Jennifer Long's system that is relevant and necessary to determine Jennifer's state of mind at the time of the offense."
Buprenorphine is commonly used to treat opioid addiction or as an alternative to opioids for pain relief.
Morgan County Circuit Judge Jennifer Howell authorized the taking of the blood samples, although court records do not indicate the results of any testing of those samples.
In August 2021, Hartselle police responded to a domestic disturbance call involving Long. According to an affidavit by Officer Garry Landers, Long "was impaired, under the influence of some type of drug and began struggling with officers," and was found to be in possession of drugs.
She was charged with possession of methamphetamine, unlawful possession of a type of prescription pill commonly used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. The prosecution dismissed the charge related to the prescription pills. Long was released from jail on a $2,300 bond for the meth, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest charges, which are pending.
Decatur police also this week filed the results of a search warrant executed at 94 Colony Lane, where the stabbings took place.
According to testimony by Brooks at a preliminary hearing last week, Long had recently been staying at the house, which was owned by her father and was the permanent residence of her parents and her son.
The boy had his own bedroom there, but had been sleeping with his grandparents in the upstairs master bedroom while Long was temporarily staying in the child's bedroom.
The father gave a statement to police stating that he was watching TV on the first floor of the house while his grandson slept in the master bedroom upstairs when, at about at 5:30 a.m., Long came down the stairs. He asked if she was OK and she went upstairs again, after which he heard a scream.
He then went upstairs, according to his statement, and she attacked him with a knife. He fended her off and, while he tried to find his cellphone downstairs to call for help, "she came from the kitchen and had two or three more knives in her hand and came swinging at me again."
They fought in the downstairs bathroom, according to the father's statement, and he left the house to get help from a neighbor. When police arrived, he directed them to check on his grandson, who was still in the Colony Lane house with Long. Brooks said the boy was dead on a bed in the master bedroom when police found him, with a deep stab wound to his chest. Long's father was treated at Huntsville Hospital for multiple stab wounds, authorities have said.
In the court filing this week, Brooks said police found four kitchen knives in the first floor bathroom and a kitchen knife where the boy's body was found. He said police also recovered 15 blood samples from various areas of the residence, sheets from the bed where the boy's body was found, a strand of hair that was on the boy's body and other items.
Brooks at the preliminary hearing testified that Long was coming down the stairs when police arrived and she was holding a vape pen. In the search warrant return, he said police recovered a green grill lighter from the stairway and a blue vape pen from the downstairs foyer.
At the conclusion of last week's preliminary hearing, District Judge Brent Craig found probable cause that the crime of capital murder had been committed and bound the case over to the grand jury.
— eric@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2435. Twitter @DD_Fleischauer.
