Mother who killed foster child with Fentanyl narcotic pain patch avoids jail

Barbara Ross

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

An East Harlem woman who admitted to killing her 6-year-old foster child by giving her a narcotic pain patch made a deal with prosecutors Friday that will keep her out of jail.

Joanne Alvarez, 54, a home health aide, will get five years' probation when she is sentenced in March. She pleaded guilty in Manhattan Supreme Court to criminally negligent homicide, which carries a maximum of four years in jail.

Prosecutors who had been urging Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Thomas Farber to give Alvarez at least 16 months in prison did not object when he agreed to probation.

Alvarez told police last May she gave the little girl, Taylor Webster, a Fentanyl transdermal patch, which a doctor had prescribed for the mother. Alvarez gave it to the girl, who was suffering from back and neck pain.

Fentanyl is a powerful narcotic stronger than morphine. The dosage on the patch was for an adult, rather than a child.