BY SAUNDRA AMRHEIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEBANON -- A Franklin woman was sentenced to six months in a residential treatment center and five years probation for giving her drunk step-grandson two painkillers, which led to his death.
Kathy Smith, 49, was ordered to the MonDayCommunity Correctional Institution in Dayton by Warren County Common Pleas Court Judge P. Daniel Fedders.
MonDay is a community-based center where inmates can receive counseling as well as treatment for chemical dependency.
Before sentencing, Ms. Smith told Judge Fedders she meant well when she gave Joseph Blair, 17, two Darvocets after he had drunk 16 beers Feb. 13.
"I would just like to say I loved Joey and treated him like my own flesh and blood grandson," Ms. Smith said. "Although what I did turned out to be a tragic mistake I have to live with every day of my life, my intentions were good. I only wanted to help ease the pain he said he was experiencing from a headache."
In August, Ms. Smith pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and endangering a child. A third charge, corrupting another with drugs, was dropped.
Ms. Smith had faced up to 10 years in prison on the involuntary manslaughter charge and up to five years for endangering a child. Judge Fedders told Ms. Smith he believed she had suffered enough by the death of her step-grandson. "I don't know what I could do to make you hurt worse than that," he said.
However, Judge Fedders warned if she violated MonDay's rules, he would send her to the penitentiary for five years.
Police say on the night of Feb. 13, Joey drank 12 beers in his mother's presence at their Franklin home. He then walked to Ms. Smith's home and drank four more beers before taking two pills and going to sleep about 3 a.m. Ms. Smith called 911 early the next morning when she could not wake Joey.
The boy's mother, Kathy Jean Smith, 36, pleaded guilty in August to one count of endangering a child. That same month she was sentenced to 15 days in jail and two years probation.
