Muncie mother not charged with causing son's suicide

Woman formally charged with neglect

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Sabrina Ann Howard

Posted: 09/13/2012
Last Updated: 253 days ago

MUNCIE, Ind. - A Muncie mother will not be charged with driving her 16-year-old son to commit suicide.

Sabrina Ann Howard, 40, was arrested Monday and originally charged with causing suicide and neglect of a dependent, both Class B felonies.

Her son died July 11, a day after he took his mother's prescription medications, including 30 Xanax pills and 26 tablets of a painkiller, police said.

Family members told police that the boy was upset over having to repeatedly confront his mother about her drug addiction, and that he had told her he was worried he'd come home and find her dead from an overdose.

Police called Howard a chronic drug user who abused both prescription drugs and street IV morphine. She had fresh track marks on her wrist during the interview with investigators, police said.

The morning the boy took the medications, Howard confronted him about it, telling him the pills could kill him, but she did not see medical attention for her son until more than eight hours later, when she found him unresponsive, police said.

The boy had threatened to commit suicide in January, but Howard refused to admit her son to a treatment center, according to the probable cause affidavit.

Howard was formally charged Thursday, but only with one count of neglect of a dependent.

Legal experts said the charge of causing suicide is rarely used in Indiana.

Howard was being held without bond at the Delaware County Jail.

Copyright 2012 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


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