Mother sentenced in her 2-month-old’s death in Wichita hotel room

A Wichita mother who admitted to drinking alcohol for a week before one of her infant twin sons died in his father’s hotel room bed will stay in jail for now — but she’ll have a chance at freedom as early as January.

Sedgwick County District Judge Joe Kisner told Christy Rollings during her sentencing hearing Wednesday that while her choice to be intoxicated instead of taking care of her 2-month-old boys “was selfish” and “wildly reckless,” there really was no punishment worse than what she was already going through coping with her role in the death of her son, Patrick Kempton.

Rollings, 39, discovered Patrick unresponsive and in bed with his father, Kyle Kempton, early on Aug. 30. The couple had been living in a Wichita hotel, the Scotsman Inn, 5299 W. Kellogg, with their twins for about a week before the baby died.

They spent the entire time drinking alcohol and didn’t seize an opportunity to sober up when police took the twins to their grandmother’s house on Aug. 28, an affidavit associated with the case says Rollings told police.

They were drunk when each slept with a baby on Aug. 29, according to court records.

“Mothers, parents — nature requires that they protect their young at all costs,” Kisner said in court Wednesday.

What’s the appropriate sentence? he wondered aloud.

“God only knows. Because I don’t.”

Ultimately, the judge ordered Rollings to serve a total of 24 months in jail for four misdemeanor counts of child endangerment. But he said he would “very seriously consider” putting her on probation if she continues participating in the Sedgwick County Jail’s drug and alcohol addiction programs and gets a mental health evaluation that might point to more treatment options.

He plans to evaluate her progress for possible probation placement at a hearing scheduled for Jan. 8.

Kisner also told Rollings he would put her on probation for the one felony count of involuntary manslaughter she pleaded guilty to in September. That sentence carries an underlying prison term of 34 months. Rollings won’t start serving her felony probation until she’s released from the misdemeanor portion of her sentence.

Kyle Kempton, 34, is also charged with involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment in connection with his care of the boys and Patrick’s death. He pleaded not guilty to the crimes earlier this month and is awaiting trial.

Rollings’ sentence is significantly less than the maximum she could have received.

Assistant District Attorney Heather Figger argued that Rollings deserved to be incarcerated for 82 months because she “made a deliberate choice in life to choose alcohol and her boyfriend” over her son’s safety. Patrick, she said, only lived 68 days because he couldn’t rely on the people who were supposed to protect him.

Public defender Jason Smartt meanwhile argued that probation was a better option so Rollings could start addiction treatment at Miracles, a Wichita rehabilitation center, on Nov. 6.

He told the judge that Rollings turned to alcohol in 2015 after a 14-year relationship with her older children’s father ended and she became “lonely and depressed” when she saw her kids less often. Alcohol let her “numb the pain that she felt,” he explained.

Rollings’ drinking continued until last year when she went to treatment, where she met her twins’ father, and sobered up.

Smartt said she stayed sober until after her sons were born on June 23. Then she had a drink to celebrate her birthday on Aug. 24.

She woke up to find Patrick lying dead in bed with his father six days later.

In a tearful apology to the court, God and her family, Rollings said she was ready to “take full responsibility for my actions” and hoped “to confront my alcoholism head on.”

“I realize that my poor judgment and decisions caused the death of my beautiful son, Patrick,” and left his twin being “raised by strangers” in foster care, she said between sobs.

“Parker will have to grow up knowing his mom and dad’s alcoholism caused the death of his brother.”

This story was originally published October 31, 2018 at 5:47 PM.