A Winnipeg mother convicted of failing to provide the necessaries of life after her 13-month-old son died with drugs in his system has been given a roughly two-year conditional sentence order.

Romeo Stewart was pronounced dead in the early hours of Dec. 29, 2022, after his mother found him not breathing in their Sherbrook Street apartment. An autopsy later found he died as a result of carfentanil, fentanyl and cocaine toxicity.

Manitoba provincial court Judge Malcolm McDonald handed down the sentence to now-35-year-old Latasha Stewart last week. The judge described the case as a “truly tragic” one that saw the boy’s mother try to take her own life by overdosing in a hospital bathroom after learning of her son’s death. 

Court heard Stewart is for now expected to continue living at the facility where she’s getting addictions treatment. Her conditions include abiding by an absolute curfew and abstaining from possessing or using drugs or alcohol.

Romeo’s father also died from a drug overdose shortly after the boy’s death, a loss McDonald said “further compounded” the family’s trauma.

“There seems to be little doubt that these two tragic events were connected to one another,” McDonald said. “The death of Romeo was and continues to be a traumatic event that has reverberated throughout his extended family.”

As a result of an adult’s careless drug use, a 13-month-old boy lost his life.

While the parents lived together for the first month of Romeo’s life, his mother later became his primary caregiver, court heard. 

The events of the night in question started when Stewart called her mom to tell her Romeo was not breathing. When the grandmother arrived at the apartment, the boy’s lips were blue.

The women followed instructions from 911 operators until paramedics arrived. When questioned, Stewart admitted her son could have been exposed to narcotics, and paramedics as a result used Narcan, a medicine used to treat opioid overdoses, and other techniques to try to resuscitate him. 

Romeo was taken to the Children’s Hospital at Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre and pronounced dead at 12:42 a.m., court heard.

‘Careless drug use’

The investigation at Stewart’s apartment turned up evidence including a white straw with drug residue, which was found on the living room floor near a baby walker, as well as drug-contaminated tinfoil pieces in the bathroom and kitchen. However, exactly how and where the boy accessed the contaminated items is not clear, court heard.

“As a result of an adult’s careless drug use, a 13-month-old boy lost his life,” McDonald said. “It’s hard to imagine a clearer object lesson in the dangers of street drug use in a household with young children present.”

McDonald said while Stewart admitted to struggling with drug use during police questioning, she has “by all accounts apparently turned her life around” in the wake of her son’s death, addressing her drug addiction through ongoing treatment and participating in grief counselling. At the time of her sentencing, court heard Stewart was over one year sober.

Stewart, who had no prior criminal record, grew up in a home where her parents abused alcohol and drugs. She witnessed domestic violence and was twice apprehended by child welfare services, court heard.

McDonald also said the overdose death of the boy’s father “left a feeling of hurt and bitterness” for his side of the family, which he said was clear from victim impact statements filed as sentencing exhibits.

“There is a clear rift between the accused and Romeo’s father’s family over her responsibility for Romeo’s death,” and over that side of the family not being advised of the boy’s funeral arrangements and final resting place, the judge said.

“Nothing this court can do will restore Romeo to his loved ones. However, for any meaningful healing to take place, the paternal great-grandparent, grandparents, uncles and aunts should know Romeo’s final resting place so they can appropriately mourn him.”

Court heard prosecutors had asked for a two-year prison sentence to be served in custody, given the seriousness of Stewart’s failure to protect her son, while the defence asked for a shorter jail sentence, arguing that would still denounce the conduct while better serving the goal of rehabilitation.

In handing down the conditional sentence, the judge said while the “impulse for retribution and punishment” is understandable, it “must be tempered by all the principles of sentencing.”