Louisiana v. Armstard

Twenty-six-year-old April Nicole Armstard (defendant) had a baby girl who was born extremely prematurely with cocaine and other drugs in her system and with malformations. The baby, V.M., was placed on life support, where she remained for two months until she died. Upon V.M.’s death, Louisiana (the state) arrested Armstard for second-degree murder. Subsequently, a grand jury indicted Armstard for cruelty to a juvenile under Louisiana law. Louisiana law described cruelty to a juvenile as neglect or mistreatment that was perpetrated with intent or criminal negligence by a person who was older than 17 years of age on a child who was less than 17 years of age, which caused the child unwarranted pain and suffering. Armstard moved to quash. From the state’s perspective, each of these elements was met. Once V.M. was born and took her first breath, she became a child, and in the moments after V.M. became a child, but before the umbilical cord was severed, Armstard, who still had drugs and alcohol in her blood, distributed these substances to V.M. intentionally or with criminal negligence, causing the child’s suffering. Armstard countered that no cruelty to a child had occurred because the offending drug use occurred before V.M. was born, thus before V.M. became a child, and the crime cited required that the one experiencing the neglect or mistreatment was already a child when the offending act occurred. At a hearing on the motion to quash, a trial court denied the motion, determining that although it would be difficult, the state had a right to try to make its case. The Louisiana Court of Appeal (the court) granted review, focusing its analysis on clarifying exactly when the offending act alleged occurred—whether it occurred when Armstard consumed cocaine and the other substances that surely passed to the baby while Armstard was pregnant, or in the moments after the child was born but prior to the clamping of the umbilical cord. The court noted that the state had indicated the latter at the hearing below, stating that the crime did not occur when Armstard ingested the substances while pregnant, but when she distributed them to the V.M. after V.M. was born.