Adrian Hedden
El Rito Media
achedden@currentargus.com

A Carlsbad woman convicted of child abuse in the 2021 fentanyl overdose death of her 12-year-old grandson is appealing the conviction, arguing that police illegally obtained evidence from the home where the boy died.

Kelli Smith, 58, was arrested Sept. 28, 2021 after Brent Sullivan, 12, was found dead in a shed at Smith’s home in the 2400 block of Western Way. She was charged with one count each of intentional abuse of a child resulting in death and child abuse not resulting in death. The second charge resulted from the presence of Sullivan’s infant sister in the home where he perished.

Smith was convicted Aug. 19, 2024, after a four-day jury trial and sentenced to 15 years in prison by Eddy County District Judge David Finger. Her daughter Alexis Murray Smith, Brent Sullivan’s mother, was convicted and sentenced to 14 years on the same charges last year. She also appealed the conviction.

Smith filed a notice of appeal on Nov. 11 and her initial statement on Dec. 4. in the New Mexico Court of Appeals.

Smith’s appeal characterized Sullivan’s death as a “suicide by drug overdose.” Police alleged that she and Murray Smith provided the drugs that killed the 12-year-old.

Both Smith and Murray Smith were admitted fentanyl users, and police said evidence of drug use and potential trafficking were found at both the home on Western Way where Sullivan died and at Murray Smith’s home in the 800 block of Alamosa Street, where the children lived.

In her initial police interview, which was shown to the jury during her trial, Murray Smith told an officer that Kelli Smith gave her up to 300 fentanyl pills at one time to sell. Murray Smith’s defense later disputed those statements, arguing she was under duress when interviewed hours after her son was declared dead. Murray Smith did not testify at Smith’s trial.

Smith’s appeal disputed that evidence of fentanyl use was found at her home, and contended police conducted the initial search without a warrant.

Police witnesses in court said the search was carried out and photographs were taken throughout the property as an “emergency” measure after the boy was found unresponsive in the shed at the back of the property.

Smith also disputed evidence that indicated she gave Sullivan the drugs or that he stole the drugs from her.

“No evidence was presented that Brent Sullivan obtained or even stole drugs from his grandmother or that she gave him the drugs from which he overdosed and died,” read Smith’s appeal.

Evidence of fentanyl and methamphetamine, which was also in Sullivan’s system when he died, was found at Murray Smith’s house and in vehicles parked outside Smith’s home on the day the boy died, read the appeal, but Smith argued she had no control over the drugs possessed by others. The appeal also argued that because Smith was not a guardian, parent or lawful custodian of either of the children at her home she was not culpable for what they may have ingested from others.

Smith tried to help Sullivan by enrolling him in drug rehab and church programs when he showed signs of substance abuse and administered Narcan multiple times in the past when he overdosed, read the appeal.

Despite those efforts, the appeal argued, prosecutors relied on the jury’s likely “prejudice” against drug addicts to convict both women instead of proving they intentionally acted to injure the child.

“The bias and prejudice against those who have been addicts who have children either theirs or are babysitting them is overwhelming and was exploited to the maximum degree by the State,” read the appeal.

Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, achedden@currentargus.com or @AdrianHedden on the social media platform X.