Infant reportedly in WV foster care found dead; Morrisey says state working hard on CPS reform

After a four-month-old baby in West Virginia foster care died last week, Gov. Patrick Morrisey had no information to share with reporters on Monday about the case but said, “We certainly want to get to the bottom of things.”

“I can say that we never want to impede any existing law enforcement investigations,” the governor said during a news conference at the state Capitol. 

Three women have been charged in connection with the June 20 discovery of a dead four-month-old baby in Mingo County. 

The infant’s mother, Jonda M. Whitt, 35, was charged with child neglect causing death and possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver, according to the Mingo County Sheriff’s Office. Officers found what they believed to be fentanyl at the scene, and Whitt told troopers that she used fentanyl prior to the child’s death, a criminal complaint said. 

Tonya Hayton, 50, was also charged in the case for violating Child Protective Services instruction after receiving the baby as a foster parent. 

According to a criminal complaint filed in Mingo County Magistrate Court and reported by WOWK, Hayton allegedly allowed the child’s mother to live in her house for two years despite CPS telling her to not allow Whitt to have contact with the child. Hayton reportedly saw Whitt take drugs with the baby in the room. 

The complaint also said Hayton confessed to taking substances while the infant was in her care.

Morrisey, who has been grappling with the state’s foster care crisis, said his administration has “been working so hard on so many CPS reforms.” There are 5,880 children in West Virginia foster care.

While the state has made headway on hiring CPS workers, state officials have said that CPS workers continue to be burdened by high caseloads.

The governor previously called for an internal investigation into the death of an 11-year-old girl, Miana Moran, in Taylor County after she died weighing 43 pounds. WCHS-TV reported CPS visited the home several times including just a few days before the girl’s death but took no action.

Morrisey told West Virginia Watch he has not yet called for a separate investigation into the infant’s death in Mingo County.

“It’s very difficult and so heartbreaking to see what happens in some of these individual circumstances, and it’s awful, and we should try to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he said.

According to the criminal complaint, Whitt told Merissa Pruitt, 35, over the phone on June 20 that her child was dead and that there were drugs in the house. Whitt is also accused of telling Pruitt not to call emergency services personnel for fear of the drugs being discovered. 

Pruitt was charged for not contacting emergency services after learning of the infant’s death and not seeking medical attention for the child. Pruitt allegedly allowed Whitt and the baby to live in her Varney house.

The complaint states deputies with the Mingo County Sheriff’s Office and members of the West Virginia State Police began investigating on June 20; the investigation is ongoing. A spokesperson for the state Department of Human Services said they couldn’t comment on the case due to confidentiality requirements.

Morrisey said he believes that the state is making progress on improving its long-troubled foster care system. 

“We’ve been strengthening our human services division, and I think that you will very likely, in the upcoming month or two, start to see, I think, a fairly robust legislative initiative to address some of the issues, and I think to clean up some of the issues that came up last year,” Morrisey said.

The governor vetoed several Republican-sponsored foster care bills earlier this year for reasons that included cost and what he described as too rigid of requirements.