A Mountain Home woman pled guilty to two counts of endangering the welfare of a minor and was sentenced to six years in prison during a session of Baxter County Circuit Court Monday. She will receive a judicial transfer to one of the Community Correction Centers in the state for addiction treatment.
Thirty-nine-year-old Patricia Kersey was originally charged with introducing a controlled substance into the body of another, a Class Y felony. Those charges were reduced to endangering.
Kersey and a man identified as her husband, 29-year-old Kyle Wayne Vestal, were arrested based on an investigation into allegations involving a one-year-old baby in their home conducted by a Family Social Worker from the Department of Human Services (DHS)
When the investigation was complete, the social worker called Mountain Home police and reported his findings. He said a hair follicle test had been done at Arkansas Children’s Hospital and that the baby showed positive for both methamphetamine and THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.
Kersey and Vestal admitted to investigators that they both used methamphetamine. They said they mainly injected the drug, but both eventually admitted they smoked methamphetamine as well.
Vestal said a close relative of his also smoked methamphetamine in the house. Vestal said the family members would go into a bathroom in the home to smoke the drug.
As it was described in the probable cause affidavit, there was no door on the bathroom – only a blanket hanging in the doorway.
Both Kersey and Vestal were hesitant at first to admit they smoked methamphetamine. Vestal said he did not usually ingest the drug by smoking it because “he didn’t get anything out of it that way.”
He did admit that he “might” have smoked methamphetamine after injecting the drug, “because I would have been in a different place.”
Kersey told investigators she could have smoked methamphetamine after injecting the drug “because she does not always remember things” after she injects herself.
Later, both Vestal and Kersey admitted to smoking methamphetamine in the residence.
When asked about marijuana, Kersey said she did not use it but that her husband did and that he had a medical marijuana card. She said he would go outside to smoke.
Vestal admitted that even though he only used marijuana outside, the smoke might have drifted into the house.
There is no indication in the probable cause affidavit that Kersey’s statement about her “husband” having a medical marijuana card was true.
Vestal pled guilty to endangering charges in mid-October and was also sentenced to six years in prison with a judicial transfer to a Community Corrections Center.
The baby was placed in foster care on June 27 and the findings of DHS that the baby had been inadequately supervised, medically neglected and exposed to chemicals were all found to be true.
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