NLR mother arrested in death of 2-year-old

Jacksonville police arrested a woman Tuesday and charged her with first-degree murder in the July death of her 2-year-old son, police said.

Jessica Nichole Rollins, 23, of 6506 Farmstead Road in North Little Rock was arrested at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at 1904 Oakwood Drive Apt. 146 in Jacksonville and charged with first-degree murder and introduction of a controlled substance into the body of another person, according to an arrest report.

According to an affidavit, police responded to 300 Marshall Road Apt. 13 in Jacksonville in the morning hours of July 26 and found Rollins’ son, Ka’Marion Hughes, not breathing. Hughes was transported to North Metro Medical Center in Jacksonville, where he was pronounced dead at 6:20 a.m.

Hughes’ body was taken to the state Crime Laboratory, and a July 28 autopsy found “no evidence of injury but the manner of death was pending toxicology and microscopic results,” the affidavit states. A toxicology test Sept. 3 revealed that Hughes tested “positive for oxymorphone,” a painkiller that police described as a “narcotic drug prescribed for extreme pain and normally given for terminally ill patients.”

Police were told Oct. 27 that the boy died as a result of a high level of the drug, the affidavit states. During an Oct. 29 interview with Rollins, a detective told Rollins the cause of Hughes’ death. Rollins asked what oxymorphone was and agreed to take a computerized voice stress analysis test, which police said showed stress when Rollins was asked questions about Hughes’ medication.

Rollins then told the detective she found a pill that appeared similar to an oxymorphone pill in a closet but threw it in the bathroom trash the day before Hughes died, the affidavit states. She said she “could not give any other reasons how Ka’Marion could have taken this pill,” according to the affidavit.

Hughes’ father, Marquese Hughes, was interviewed and told the detective that he watched the toddler at night because Rollins worked, the affidavit states. Rollins go home around 8 p.m. July 25 and checked on Ka’Marion Hughes and the couple’s infant daughter, giving Marquese Hughes a break. Marquese Hughes said that was the only time he wasn’t watching the children and that the family “didn’t even have prescription drugs in the house.”

Marquese Hughes said he discovered Ka’Marion Hughes not breathing after 1 a.m. July 26 and called 911.