14th Judicial District Attorney General Craig NorthcottA Manchester, Tenn., woman has been jailed after giving birth to a baby girl who lived less than an hour and tested positive for methamphetamine.
Brittany Michelle Evans, 28, was indicted by a Coffee County grand jury Wednesday on charges of second-degree murder and two counts of aggravated assault stemming from her baby’s birth on April 3, 2015, according to 14th Judicial District Attorney General Craig Northcott. He said the scenario that led to the charges could be the first such case in Tennessee.
“All three charges stem from the same act,” Northcott said Friday.
Each of the aggravated assault charges arises under two different theories: assault resulting in death and assault resulting in serious bodily injury, he said.
‘The underlying basic facts are that the mother gave birth to this girl and the baby crashed almost immediately upon birth,” Northcott said.
When Evans arrived at the hospital she was at full term, but “within 10 minutes of birth, the baby had gone into a ‘code’ situation,” he said.
“It was determined that the cause of death was an overdose of meth. The only source of that meth would have been the mother giving it to the baby, and we have charged her with knowingly killing the infant child by ingesting the meth,” Northcott said.
Evans was tested for meth, but Northcott said he couldn’t talk about those results at this stage in the case.
“We have all the results of the levels in the mom and baby, but I’m trying to go to the next level to see how they correlate to one another and what that means,” he said.
Northcott said experts have been consulted to give investigators “a better understanding” of the medical issues involved.
The Tullahoma Police Department has worked with the district attorney’s office throughout the case, he said.
Contact staff writer Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfree press.com or twitter.com/Ben Benton or www.facebook.com/ben.benton1 or 423-757-6569.