Ashley Rolland was sentenced to 40 years in the Arkansas Department of Corrections after pleading guilty on August 8 to two counts of permitting abuse of a minor. In 2022, her boyfriend drowned her 5-year-old son in a toilet as punishment and injured her 6-year-old daughter, according to State Police.
According to an affidavit obtained by NBC, Lee County deputies responded to a home on Front Street in December 2022, where Rolland pulled out her daughter. The child had visible injuries to her head that had scabbed over. The mother stated her son, Blu Rolland, was not at home.
The daughter was taken to Forrest City Hospital, where medical personnel concluded she had been seriously burned. According to the affidavit, Rolland’s mother informed deputies that Blu had possibly died inside the defendant’s home. Authorities entered the house and discovered the boy under the floorboards, wrapped in layers of plastic bags. He was recovered on December 16, 2022, which would have been his sixth birthday.
Arkansas State Police stated that “based on preliminary findings, it is believed the boy died from injuries sustained in the home.” Rolland reportedly informed authorities that her son died three months earlier, on September 9, 2022.
According to the complaint, Blu allegedly “angered her boyfriend, Nathan Bridges, by biting his finger when Bridges stuck it in” his mouth. As punishment, Bridges allegedly drowned the toddler in the toilet.
Rolland said she entered the restroom and found her kid struggling to breathe, noting that his body appeared limp. She also told detectives that Bridges had buried her son under the floorboards after he died.
Rolland claims that Bridges caused her daughter’s injuries by holding her “head and upper torso under hot water in the bathtub.” Rolland’s daughter has behavioral challenges, and Bridges uses hot water as punishment.
According to state police, Rolland and Bridges were first charged with capital murder, mistreatment of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence, and endangering a minor’s welfare.
While Rolland received a 40-year sentence, Bridges pled guilty in July to first-degree murder and battery and was sentenced to 60 years in the Arkansas Department of Corrections.