Judge excludes father’s drug use history in child death trial

BLOOMINGTON The case against a father accused of giving his 1-year-old daughter an unintentionally fatal dose of a prescription drug was essentially gutted by a judges ruling on the mans drug use history, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Martin Stevenson, 26, of Normal is charged with endangering the health of a child resulting in a death. He is accused of allowing Laina Stevenson access to Suboxone, a drug prescribed to treat opiate dependency, in May 2012.

In response to a motion from defense lawyer Steve Skelton, McLean County Judge Scott Drazewski ruled that evidence of Stevensons prior drug use and the reason he was prescribed Suboxone are irrelevant and may not be presented to the jury at an April 15 trial.

While not suggesting that the state should have filed a murder charge against Stevenson, the judge commented that the act of administering a drug is outside the evidentiary bounds of the current charge against the defendant.

In his arguments that the jury should know about Stevensons drug history, First Assistant States Attorney Bill Workman disclosed the states theory as to why the father allegedly gave Laina the drug he takes as part of his treatment for an addiction to prescription pain medications. The state plans to introduce evidence that the child was not feeling well, and Stevenson without intent to harm the child gave her his medication because he possibly felt it would make her feel better.

According to police, Stevenson and his wife, Marta, said the twin girls suffered from allergies and were given a pain reliever and allergy medication before they went to bed. Laina was found unresponsive by her father about 5:30 a.m. after her twin sister woke up crying.

Toxicology reports returned three months after the childs death found evidence of fatal concentrations of Suboxone.

Stevenson remains in jail in lieu of posting $50,025.

eblunny@pantagraph.com

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Judge excludes father’s drug use history in child death trial