Twin Cities Mom Gets Lighter Sentence After 6-Year-Old Son Overdoses

HENNEPIN COUNTY, MN — A Maple Plain mother was given a lighter-than-usual sentence for her conviction of second-degree manslaughter.

Brittany E. Ferrell, 30, was convicted after investigators determined her 6-year-old son chewed a fentanyl-laced dollar bill in May 2022.

Second-degree manslaughter carries a maximum 10-year sentence. However, on Thursday, Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill agreed to depart down from the state's sentencing guidelines.

Ferrell must serve at least 30 days at the Hennepin County Adult Corrections Facility before she is eligible for electronic home monitoring.

On May 27, police were dispatched to a home in Maple Plain on an overdose call.

At the scene, officers found a 6-year-old child seizing and not breathing. Life-saving measures were attempted, but the child died at the house.

The child had fallen asleep in the mother's bed, police said. The child's mother, identified as Ferrell, said she woke to find that the child had vomited and wasn't breathing, according to the criminal complaint.

Ferrell said she called 911 and attempted CPR. The child's father said he gave the child Narcan but it didn't revive him.

The father admitted that he and Ferrell were heroin users, investigators said. Ferrell said she thinks her child got ahold of a dollar bill they used to smoke heroin, the criminal complaint states.

She would put the heroin on tinfoil and then inhale the smoke through the dollar bill, according to police. Ferrell also said the heroin she possessed actually turned out to be fentanyl, investigators said.

She found the dollar bill on the floor next to her bed, according to police.

The dollar bill had burn marks on it, was missing a corner as if it had a bite mark, and was wet to the touch, according to investigators.