[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
A mother in Arkansas is facing 40 years in prison after pleading guilty in the death of her 5-year-old son, who was drowned in the toilet by the mom’s boyfriend.
Ashley Rolland (pictured above) was sentenced to four decades in prison this week after pleading guilty in an Arkansas courtroom last Thursday. She copped to two counts of permitting the abuse of a minor after her boyfriend Nathan Bridges abused and then fatally drowned her son Blu Rolland (pictured above, inset) in December of 2022. Bridges will be in jail for decades, as well, after pleading guilty to his role in the case in July.
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According to a police affidavit, via NBC News, sheriff’s deputies in Lee County, Arkansas reposted to a domestic disturbance call at a home on Front Street in Forrest City one day in December 2022. Rolland (pictured above, in her mugshot) brought her daughter out to meet deputies. The deputies could plainly see that the child had head injuries that had been bleeding in the past, and had scabbed over. When interrogated further, Rolland told officers that her son Blu was not at the residence.
The little girl was taken to Forrest City Hospital for medical care. There, doctors determined that the scabs were from severe burns she’d sustained. Alarmed, deputies pressed Ashley further for information about Blu. Her mother — Blu’s grandmother — eventually told cops that she thought Blu was possibly dead and buried inside the defendant’s home.
Authorities got a warrant to enter the residence and began to investigate. They eventually dug up floorboards and discovered the boy’s body wrapped up in several layers of plastic bags down below. Chillingly, the discovery was made on December 16, 2022 — the day which would have been Blu’s sixth birthday.
Heartbreaking…
When questioned further, Ashley said that Blue had died about three months before that, in September 2022. Per the arrest affidavit, she claimed that the little boy had “angered her boyfriend, Nathan Bridges, by biting his finger when Bridges stuck it in [the child’s] mouth.” As punishment for that incident, Nathan allegedly DROWNED THE CHILD IN THE TOILET. What. The. F**K?!?!
Ashley also claimed that she entered the bathroom as it was going on, saw her son struggling to breathe, and observed that his body “appeared limp.” She also told investigators that it was Bridges who buried the boy’s corpse underneath the house’s floorboards.
As for her unnamed daughter, Ashley said the little girl was injured when Bridges “held her head and upper torso under hot water in the bathtub.” And that was apparently a regular thing in their household!! The affidavit stated that Ashley’s daughter suffered from behavioral issues, and Bridges would routinely use hot water as a punishment for transgressions.
EVIL!!
After they were arrested at the very end of 2022, Rolland and Bridges were both initially charged with capital murder, abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence, and endangering the welfare of a minor. However, they both pled guilty to lesser charges to avoid trial, hence Ashley’s 40-year prison sentence handed down last week. As we briefly noted up top, Bridges also pled guilty back in July to first-degree murder and first-degree battery. He was sentenced to serve 60 years in prison.
This whole case is absolutely awful. Truly, one of the worst things we’ve ever covered. Our hearts go out to those poor, innocent children…
If you have sincere cause to suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, help is available. Consider calling the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233, or text START to 88788, or go to https://www.thehotline.org/.
[Image via Arkansas State Police/Facebook/Saint Francis County Jail]
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