Woman Takes Plea Deal After Infant Ingests Hard Drugs

SAN ANGELO, TX— A San Angelo woman has taken a plea deal for endangering her child after a date night with hard drugs.

Jamie Rosalinda Huertas, 19, has taken a plea deal for Criminal Negligence of a Child.

A summer night almost turned deadly in early June. On June 5, 2023, Child Protective Service intake alleged that a one-year-old infant was rushed to Shannon Medical Center due to being extremely tired. So tired in fact that the infant could not be woken up. A social worker with Shannon returned a urinary analysis where the child tested positive for marijuana and cocaine.

Child Protective Services turned to the defendant, Huertas, and Matthew Sanders, who both said they had used cocaine and smoked a joint on June 3, 2023. The couple claimed the one-year-old could have picked up a bag containing their cocaine. Why cocaine caused drowsiness for the child has not been explained in court documents.

Sanders was interviewed and said that he bought the cocaine, about half a gram, and returned to his residence on the 40 block of South Florence Street, unaware of the terror he and Huertas were about to go through. He claimed that the cocaine was in a plastic baggie and he and Huertas used about .3 grams, leaving the small amount of .2 grams in the bag. Sanders put the illegal narcotics in his front pants pocket. 

If cocaine wasn’t enough, the couple went out on the front porch to smoke a joint, more specifically, a marijuana cigar. There, Sanders claimed that the cocaine fell out of his pocket, still in the bag. 

The nightmare began when Sanders and Huertas found the one-year-old sucking on the bag and the .2 grams of cocaine missing. Huertas grabbed the bag from the infant’s mouth, which had bite marks on it. Sanders said that he believed the child ingested the remaining cocaine.

The next day, June 4, the child was not acting right, which Sanders knew was due to the cocaine the infant had eaten the night before. Never mind it was June 5 before the child was taken to the hospital.

Huertas was spoken to about that horrible night. She claims that she and Sanders were the guardians of the child and that Sanders had lost the baggie containing what she believe was just residue of the cocaine. She then said they discovered the bag on the front porch with bite marks and slobber on it while she and Sanders were smoking pot. Huertas did believe the child was in distress over ingesting the remaining cocaine.

Huertas and Sanders were arrested on June 25, 2023, but were released that same day on $7,000 bond. Both were indicted in October and only Huertas has taken a plea deal. In exchange for the guilty plea, she was sentenced to three years of probation deferred and must pay a $1,000 fine. 

Sanders is next due in court on December 12, 2023, for a pre-trial hearing.