Elyssa Kay Turner

     A current Baxter County Jail inmate has been charged with an additional felony offense after the Sheriff’s Office investigated a child welfare complaint referred by the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney and the Arkansas Department of Human Services. 

     ELYSSA K. TURNER, 28 years old of Mountain Home and a current inmate at the jail, gave birth to a male child on January 20, 2013 at Baxter Regional Medical Center.  The infant suffered from withdrawals and was treated for approximately thirty (30) days in the hospital.  Reports indicate that ELYSSA K. TURNER had tested positive for opiates and benzodiazepines.  She admitted to state child welfare investigators that she had consumed hydrocodone during her pregnancy without being prescribed such.  The infant suffered withdrawals from chronic drug abuse. 

     Sheriff’s Investigator Lt. Terry Johnson obtained a bench warrant for the arrest of ELYSSA TURNER, which was served on her today at the jail.  In addition to charges she had previously been incarcerated on, which included Failure to Appear and Probation/Parole violations, TURNER has now been charged with:

Introduction of Controlled Substance into the Body of Another – Class B Felony. 

     Bond for this charge is set at $25,000, with an appearance pending in Circuit Court.  She is also charged as a habitual offender. 

/s/ John F. Montgomery,
Baxter County Sheriff