Woman guilty in boy’s death

1-year-old child took oxycodone

A Sherwood woman was found guilty of negligent homicide Wednesday and given one day of jail credit with a year-long suspended sentence in the death of her foster grandson in February 2016.

A blood test revealed that 1-year-old Thurman Billings died from consuming a fatal dose of oxycodone, a medicine Denise Thomson had been prescribed because of back and neck surgeries that began in 2004 and left her disabled.

Thomson, 49, was originally charged with manslaughter, a felony, but the charge was reduced to misdemeanor negligent homicide in May 2016, two months after her arrest.

She was found guilty in Sherwood District Court by Judge Milas Hale III after a four-hour bench trial.

Thomson was taking care of Thurman for her son and his wife while they worked, her daughter-in-law Madison Thomson testified Wednesday.

Denise Thomson had not been feeling well that day and stayed in bed while her husband, Eric Thomson, watched the baby, Thurman’s sister and one of the couple’s biological grandchildren, according to court documents.

Thurman was nodding off over his bowl of dry cereal, so Eric Thomson took him back to the bedroom to nap next to Denise Thomson.

The baby’s breathing was raspy before he was put to bed, but Eric Thomson did not think too much about it because the child had been troubled by health problems since he came to the Thomson family in September 2015, according to court filings.

Thurman had started staying with his foster grandparents during the week because he seemed to catch every illness that made its way through his day care.

When Denise Thomson woke up and got food about three hours later, she checked on Thurman, she said in a video-recorded police interview that was played in court.

The child’s arms and legs were cold, and he was unresponsive, Thomson said in the interview.

She called 911 and started performing CPR on him, she said.

Heather Meadows, a detective who responded to the call, said that based on his temperature, Thurman had been dead for a couple of hours.

When police arrived, Thurman was limp and his lips were blue, Meadows testified under questioning from deputy prosecutor Marti Parker. He had thrown up on the pillow next to him. The pillowcase and sheet would later become evidence.

No charges were filed in the death until March 2016, when the blood test results came back, because there were no signs of abuse or mistreatment on the baby’s body.

It was unclear how many pills Thurman swallowed, Dr. Frank Peretti, who examined the baby’s body for the Arkansas State Crime Lab, said under questioning from defense attorneys Patrick Benca and John Kennedy.