Stillborn baby had drugs in blood, Alabama officials say. Now, mom sentenced
An Alabama mother was sentenced after pleading guilty to manslaughter in the 2023 death of her unborn son, officials said.
Chelsey Redmon-Zellers will serve 15 years in the Alabama Department of Corrections after a toxicology report found illicit substances in her stillborn baby’s bloodstream, the 12th Circuit District Attorney’s Office for Coffee and Pike County said in an Aug. 8 news release.
Attorney information for Redmon-Zellers was not immediately available.
According to officials, Redmon-Zellers’ son was delivered dead on March 18, 2023, at a hospital in Enterprise, about an 85-mile drive southeast from Montgomery.
The full-term baby’s body was then sent to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences for an autopsy and toxicology report, in which methamphetamine, amphetamine and a “lethal” amount of fentanyl were found in his blood, officials said.
Redmond-Zellers had been told to stay away from drugs during her pregnancy but disregarded that advice, officials said.
“This is a tragic case that was difficult to work on for all involved,” District Attorney James Tarbox said in the release. “To have a baby that should have been born and given a chance at life die in this manner is heartbreaking.”
