A woman who injected narcotics into a Concord mother during labor will avoid significant jail time if she can clean up her life and stay out of trouble.
Rhianna Frenette, 38, was sentenced Tuesday to one year in jail, with credit for 113 days already served, and two years probation.
Attorneys also recommended Frenette participate in the Successful Offender Adjustment and Re-entry program, which operates out of the Merrimack County jail in Boscawen and is being remodeled to include a community aftercare component.
“I wish you the best of luck Ms. Frenette,” Judge Larry Smukler said.
Frenette was accused of shooting up her housemate, Felicia Farruggia, with heroin as she screamed and begged for the drug while in active labor on the bathroom floor on the evening of Sept. 15, Deputy County Attorney Catherine Ruffle told the court. Farruggia had refused to go to the hospital without a dose of heroin in her veins, and had tried to inject herself with twice the dose of the drug prior to Frenette’s intervention.
Frenette maintained that she injected Farruggia to prevent her from shooting a potentially fatal amount. Frenette told police that she entered the apartment bathroom to help Farruggia because she was in “full-blown labor” and was “mutilating herself with the needle” in an attempt to inject the drug.
The case made national headlines as it underscored the depth of New Hampshire’s drug epidemic.
Police ultimately charged Frenette with two counts of reckless conduct in connection with the incident, one of which she pleaded guilty to Tuesday. She took responsibility for placing the unborn child in danger of serious bodily injury, just one week after Farruggia was sentenced for her role in the incident. The second charge, which alleged harm against Farruggia, was dropped.
Both women received nearly identical sentences after reaching separate plea agreements with the Merrimack County Attorney’s Office. Ruffle said the terms of incarceration for both women will depend on their success in the SOAR program. Once they reach a certain stage, they’ll be released from the jail on electronic monitoring with home confinement, allowing them to continue receiving treatment in more of an outpatient setting.
Because the two-year probationary period is in effect immediately, the women must remain on good behavior or risk imprisonment of up to five years.
Police arrested Frenette and Farruggia in early March. Later that month, the charges against both women were reduced from felonies to misdemeanors after defense attorneys argued before a circuit court judge that a syringe filled with heroin should not be considered a deadly weapon under the circumstances.
Farruggia delivered her child in the driveway in front of her Elmwood Avenue apartment. The baby boy was born lethargic and still in the amniotic sac, both of which are considered unusual circumstances, Concord police Detective Nicole Murray said previously in circuit court testimony.
The child was placed in state custody after his birth.
No heroin was found in the mother or the baby when they were tested at Concord Hospital, records state, even though they tested positive for other drugs, including methamphetamine and amphetamine. Farruggia also tested positive for benzodiazepines, a type of anti-anxiety drug, according to court records.
(Alyssa Dandrea can be reached at 369-3319, adandrea@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @_ADandrea.)