Kyle Vestal and Patricia Kersey (Photos courtesy of Baxter County Sheriff’s Office)
A Mountain Home couple in the Baxter County Detention Center is accused of exposing their infant to methamphetamine at their residence. Twenty-nine-year-old Kyle Vestal and 39-year-old Patricia Kersey are facing Class Y felony counts of introduction of a controlled substance into the body of another person. Class Y is the most serious classification of crime in Arkansas not punishable by death.
According to the probable cause affidavits, a social worker contacted a Mountain Home investigator July 20 and stated an investigation was open on Vestal and Kersey for inadequate supervision, medical neglect and exposure to a chemical on their one-year-old daughter. The social worker also said a doctor at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock conducted a hair follicle test on the child June 27, and it came back positive for methamphetamine and THC.
Kersey was interviewed July 27 by the Mountain Home investigator and reportedly admitted she and Vestal were using meth intravenously while they were the only caretakers of the baby on June 21. She also stated it was possible she had smoked the substance because she doesn’t always remember what occurred afterwards. When the investigator told her Vestal admitted to the social worker they had smoked meth in the proximity of their daughter, Kersey said it must be true. She reportedly denied using marijuana, but she said Vestal had a medical card, and he normally went outside to smoke it.
Vestal was interviewed by the investigator two days later, and he also reportedly admitted to injecting meth on June 21. He initially denied to the investigator smoking the substance, but he said a third party did, and that may have been how it came into contact with the baby. Vestal later admitted he and the other person smoked meth in the bathroom with no door present and only a blanket hanging. He also said he and his wife would take turns going into the bathroom to smoke, and it could have gone into the bedroom or traveled through the vent. Vestal also reportedly said he would stand outside with the door open to smoke marijuana, and it could have been blown into the bedroom from outside.
Vestal is facing an additional Class C felony count of introduction of a controlled substance into the body of another person. His bond is set at $35,000, and Kersey’s is at $25,000. The infant has been in Foster care since June 27.
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI