A Louisiana woman was sentenced this week to 8 years in prison for the fentanyl overdose death of her toddler son, and her family is angry it wasn’t longer.
Summer Buxton pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of Keynan Jay Buxton, 2, in May 2023, KPLC reported. The boy died of acute drug intoxication, with methamphetamine and fentanyl found in his system.
The child’s father, Adrian Higgins, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in December and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. But Buxton’s family, including her mother, Tammie Abshire, expected a harsher sentence.
“We went to court fully expecting for Summer to sentenced to plead guilty to manslaughter and to be sentenced to 20 years,” said Abshire.
Family members delivered victim impact statements in court, all asking for the maximum sentence.
Buxton’s sister, Kayla Lyons, told the court that Buxton was posting provocative photos to her OnlyFans account just days after her son’s death and skipped the child’s funeral in her statement, which she posted to Facebook.
Meanwhile, Buxton’s attorneys, Todd and Micah Clemons, told Law&Crime their client shouldn’t even have been charged with manslaughter because the toddler’s death was just “a horrific accident.” Instead, they said, they were happy for their client to plead guilty with the prosecution’s offer of an 8 year term.
Summer is truly remorseful,” the lawyers said. “She regrets any decision that she may have made that contributed to the death of her infant child.”
According to Lyons, however, the judge saw no remorse but stuck to the plea deal anyway.
