Mother who used OxyContin-laced pacifier sentenced
Debra Kirk Moore, 23, must serve at least 85 percent of her sentence — or more than 21 years — before she is eligible for parole.
“I know I didn’t kill my kid,” Moore told Circuit Court Judge Ben Hooper. “There’s more to this investigation than has been done.”
Moore was convicted last month of aggravated child abuse and criminally negligent homicide in the July 22, 2002, death of Lacie Moore III. She had been charged with first-degree murder.
In addition to the 25-year sentence, Moore also received two years for the homicide charge to be served concurrently.
Moore and her estranged husband, Lacy Moore Jr. of Morgantown, N.C., were spending the night with their baby at his sister’s house in Cosby.
According to a statement Debra Moore gave to investigators, she and her husband had crushed OxyContin tablets and taken the drug before going to sleep. The child awoke soon after, but would not go back to sleep.
Moore said, “I took his pacifier into the bathroom where the OxyContin had been crushed. There were crumbs and dust, and I stuck the wet pacifier into the dust and crumbs and put it back into the baby’s mouth,” according to the statement.
Authorities said the father was preparing a bottle of milk for the baby and did not know what his wife had done.
The child went to sleep but was not breathing when the couple awoke later that morning.
OxyContin, a brand name for the medication oxycodone, is prescribed to provide time-released pain relief. Drug abusers can obtain a heroin-like high by crushing the pills before taking them.
Newport is located about 40 miles east of Knoxville.
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