South Carolina mother guilty of homicide by child abuse in infant’s fentanyl death
A Chester mother has been sentenced to 35 years in a South Carolina prison after a jury found her guilty of homicide by child abuse in the 2021 fentanyl death of her toddler child, according to prosecutors and court records.
Joyce Renee Stover, 34, was convicted late Wednesday after a trial in Chester County, records show.
South Carolina Circuit Court Judge Brian Gibbons sentenced Stover after the jury’s guilty verdict, according to online court records and Candice Lively, the 6th Circuit Deputy Solicitor who prosecuted the case.
Stover’s 11-month-old son died Oct. 30, 2021, from fentanyl toxicity after ingesting the drug while home alone with Stover, Lively said in a statement after the trial.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid drug that is approximately 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine, according to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention websites.
This story was originally published August 3, 2023 at 12:23 PM.
