Woman sentenced for fentanyl poisoning of 13-month-old son
Roberta Hammer
A Ronan woman was sentenced in District Court in Polson Oct. 17 to the Montana State Women’s Prison for 15 years, with 10 years suspended, for the fentanyl poisoning death of her 13-month-old son. Roberta Hammer, 22, pleaded guilty to one count of negligent homicide after reaching a plea agreement in the case during an earlier court appearance.
The father of the infant, Nyibe Jordan Nguyen, 25, is also charged with negligent homicide. The case against him is pending.
According to court records, on Sept. 16, 2023, Hammer and Nguyen brought the child to St. Luke Hospital in Ronan. The boy was declared dead 50 minutes after arriving.
A deputy with the Lake County Sheriff’s Office responded and went through the “Sudden Unexplained Infant Death” form with the parents, who were still at the hospital. They told the deputy the child “put himself to nap” at about 5 p.m., and Hammer noticed the boy was unresponsive about two hours later.
An autopsy later determined the boy’s cause of death was “acute fentanyl intoxication.”
Nguyen told investigators that Hammer had recently received her “18” money from the tribe, and spent some of it on fentanyl. Nguyen initially denied that he and Hammer used anything but marijuana in the residence. When confronted with a drug test showing he had used methamphetamine and fentanyl, he admitted that he used fentanyl in the residence.
During a second interview with Hammer, she admitted that people had smoked fentanyl at the residence at least 100 times. Both gave “inconsistent versions of who, where and when they and other people smoked fentanyl in their residence.”
In addition to the 15-year prison term with 10 suspended, Judge John A. Mercer gave Hammer credit for having already served 144 days in jail. She was also ordered to pay $3,645 for the infant’s funeral expenses. Nguyen remains in the Lake County jail with bail set at $20,000.