THE NEWS DESK
The News Desk is a collection of news, notes and breaking items affecting the Fredericksburg community.
Abuse charge dismissed against woman who gave birth to heroin-addicted baby
BY KEITH EPPS
A judge today dismissed a child abuse charge against a woman who gave birth to a heroin-addicted baby earlier this year.
But the news in Stafford Circuit Court wasn’t all good for 24-year-old Krystal Lynn Woodson. She was convicted of possession of heroin and went to jail after Judge J. Martin Bass revoked her bond.
According to the evidence, Woodson admitted using drugs throughout her pregnancy and used heroin and OxyContin after going into labor, according to evidence presented at an earlier hearing.
Her baby boy was born Feb. 5 and was treated for his addiction at Mary Washington Hospital. The child is doing fine now and is in the care of his paternal grandmother.
Defense attorney Jim Ilijevich argued that the state’s child abuse laws do not apply to fetuses. Prosecutor Jim Peterson disagreed with Ilijevich’s interpretation, but Bass ruled in favor of Woodson and threw the abuse charge out.
She is facing a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison when she is sentenced March 2.
Woodson was arrested March 18 after she showed up in Stafford General District Court for a hearing involving the baby’s father, Jerry Dale Cook. Cook has since been convicted of three charges in connection with a Feb. 8 armed robbery at GNC Service in North Stafford and will be sentenced Jan. 23.
Woodson left Mary Washington Hospital two days after the child’s birth without her doctor’s authorization and returned to work at her job as a stripper at a club in West Virginia. She stayed there with Cook until his arrest.
The pregnancy that resulted in the heroin-addicted baby was Woodson’s ninth. It is not clear how many of those ended in live births.
Keith Epps: 540/374-5404
