AUGUSTA, Maine — A woman from Oakland has been sentenced to serve four years in prison after she pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of her 14-month-old son.
Ashley Malloy, 23, appeared in Kennebec County Superior Court on Monday morning, where she was sentenced to serve 10 years in prison with all but four suspended. That means after her time behind bars, she'll be on six years of probation with certain conditions.
Malloy previously faced up to 60 years in prison for one count of manslaughter and three class B drug counts after her toddler son, Karson, died of a drug overdose in 2021.
She pleaded guilty Aug. 30 to charges of manslaughter and criminal forfeiture, as well as three counts of drug trafficking. Malloy originally pleaded not guilty to those charges in May 2022.
On Nov. 2, 2021, Malloy called 911 when she found her son, Karson, unresponsive and not breathing after a nap. About an hour later at the hospital, Karson was pronounced dead. An investigation revealed Karson died from complications brought on by exposure to fentanyl on bedsheets where he was napping.
"There was no safe space for Karson in that environment," Lisa Bogue, an assistant attorney general for the state of Maine, said Monday.
Bogue was pushing for a more severe sentence for Malloy, saying she was not initially transparent with law enforcement and tried to hide some evidence.
“She starts from the very beginning saying, ‘I don’t know what happened to my child,'" Bogue said. "The more she’s interviewed and the more she’s faced with evidence in this case, does she admit that she knew there to be drugs in the bedroom."
Bogue also said prosecution believes Malloy played more of a role in drug operations out of her apartment than the defense led on and that Malloy knew how dangerous the drugs were.
"I think the role of fentanyl in our community is a devastating one," Bogue said.
On Monday, Bogue brought two people to the stand: Karson's father and paternal grandmother.
"We’re haunted by the thoughts of the suffering he may have endured and the experiences he will never have," Karson's grandmother said.
Defense attorney John Pelletier said Malloy did not play a direct role in drug operations, did not use opioids, and pointed to her young age of 21 years old when Karson died.
"Young people lack life experience. They lack the life experience to assess the consequences of their actions," Pelletier said.
Pelletier said Malloy was lonely as a single mother and naïve and got involved with the wrong crowd because of a romantic relationship. He said she also had a tough upbringing and was working low-paying jobs trying to care for Karson after being emancipated at 16 years old.
“She didn’t have guidance when she was growing up. She’s on her own. She’s struggling," Pelletier said.
Along with the manslaughter sentence, Malloy is serving concurrent sentences for the three drug counts. It's unclear Monday whether she had plans to appeal.