Woman sentenced for passing meth through breast milk

EPHRATA — A Coulee City woman will be spending time in jail for transferring methamphetamine to her infant son through breast milk. The boy died a month after he was born as a result of acute meth intoxication.

Heather Chapman, 34, of Coulee City, pleaded guilty in Grant County Superior Court to endangerment with a controlled substance. The charge carried with it a standard sentencing range of three to nine months in jail. Chapman was sentenced under a first-time offender waiver of a standard sentence and received a 90-day jail sentence.

The Grant County Sheriff’s Office began investigating Chapman after her 1-month-old son went into cardiac arrest in the early morning hours of May 22, 2016 in Coulee City. Paramedics transported the boy to Columbia Basin Hospital in Ephrata for treatment, but the infant was pronounced dead at the hospital a few hours after he arrived. Chapman said the boy did not appear to be sick before his death and he was a healthy baby. She said she and her son were asleep in their trailer and when she woke up to feed the boy he was not breathing.

The coroner's report later ruled the boy’s death to be accidental from “Acute Methamphetamine Intoxication.” Child Protective Services provided the investigating detective with medical records for the boy for care during his birth at Samaritan Hospital and learned Chapman tested positive for meth and marijuana in a urine toxicology when she was at the hospital to have the boy delivered.

“According to (the boy’s) birth medical records, Heather denied that she used methamphetamines and that she indicated that she only smokes marijuana. Heather was breastfeeding (the boy) at the hospital and the medical records indicated her intent to continue doing so upon discharge,” wrote the detective.

During an interview with a CPS worker the day after the boy was born, Chapman claimed “someone else” put meth in the marijuana she smoked, which is why she says she tested positive for meth.

CPS notes reportedly show that Chapman was scheduled to take a urine analysis twice between the time her son was born and the day he died, but she canceled both appointments. Further medical records were obtained from Coulee Medical Center that reportedly indicate Chapman was seen in October 2015, when she found out she was pregnant, and she tested positive for amphetamines, meth and THC.

During an interview with the detective Chapman admitted to “actively” using meth up until she was became pregnant with her son, but she said she did not “intentionally” use meth while she was pregnant and she only smoked marijuana. Chapman later changed her story and admitted to smoking meth a few times when she was breastfeeding her son.

“Heather did not believe her smoking methamphetamine would affect (her son) while she was breastfeeding him,” wrote the detective.

Chapman additionally claimed that a couple of days before her son’s death she took him inside a friend’s house that was filled with smoke, presumably from meth. The detective ultimately recommended charges be filed against Chapman for endangerment with a controlled substance due to Chapman admitting to using meth “and then delivery of that methamphetamine to her son...via breast milk feeding.”

Richard Byrd can be reached via email at city@columbiabasinherald.com.