Kansas babysitter pleads guilty in fentanyl-related death of 3-year-old boy
A 40-year-old Leavenworth woman pleaded guilty Wednesday in the death of a 3-year-old boy she was babysitting, according to the Leavenworth County attorney. Tara Ann Huerta admitted in Leavenworth County District Court to one count of involuntary manslaughter and one count of aggravated endangering a child in the March 2025 death of E-lah “EJ” Brown Jr., who authorities say died from fentanyl poisoning.
EJ’s mother, Briana Davis, 30, previously told The Star that she left her son with Huerta and her boyfriend, Kenneth Hedgecock, 35, at the Woodland Village Apartments on March 24, 2025, after he fell asleep and while Davis was getting a face tattoo.
EJ stayed the night, and Davis left at 5 a.m. the next day and slept for most of the day. Around 10 p.m., she called her neighbor, who said EJ was doing well and was sleeping, she told The Star. Hours later, the neighbor knocked on door and told her that her son wasn’t breathing.
Leavenworth police were called to the apartments in the 2900 Block of Martin Luther King Drive around 4:30 a.m. on March 26, 2025, on a medical call. The boy was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Detectives opened a homicide investigation after finding several items suspected of being illegal drugs and paraphernalia in the apartment.
Davis, Huerta and Hedgecock were charged in the boy’s death. Huerta is scheduled to be sentenced at 1 p.m. on March 27.
Davis pleaded no contest on Jan. 21 and was found guilty of child abandonment and aggravated battery, both felonies, and a misdemeanor charge of child endangerment. She is scheduled to be sentenced at 11 a.m. March 11.
Meanwhile, Hedgecock, who has been charged with first-degree felony murder, three felony counts of drug possession, including fentanyl, methamphetamine and cocaine, and a misdemeanor count of possession of drug paraphernalia, is scheduled to stand trial beginning March 9.
