Family gets settlement in tragic drowning at North Laurel pool with ‘drug-fueled parties’
The drowning of a young girl in a North Laurel swimming pool, which led to a public outcry for criminal charges after her caregivers were accused of being high on drugs, has come to a close.
The family of Priscilla Rose Smith received an undisclosed settlement that was “the maximum amount of insurance coverage available,” according to attorney Christopher Weldy of Jackson. “Now each of the child’s siblings have money for college. Justice and closure was achieved for the family.”
Priscilla Rose, 6, drowned in a pool behind the residence of Kevin and Lana Butler on Kimberly Drive on June 22, 2019. The wrongful death complaint was filed against them, the child’s mother Gabriella Glenn and the estate of Brandon Blakeney on behalf of the little girl’s father, Alex Glenn of Simpson County.
The little girl’s grandmother Neysha Stringer said that Weldy “did an amazing job” after taking over the case.
“He listened when no one in Jones County would!,” she said. “He will forever be a part of our story.”
Priscilla Rose — known to family members as “Prissy Poo — is “missed every day,” Stringer said. “This was and still is a tragic impact on the entire family on both sides, friends and the community. Hopefully, we all can find some bit of closure and move forward.”
The Butlers’ pool did not meet the city’s code requirements to make it safer for children and “they allowed drug- and alcohol-fueled parties to be hosted at their home with small children,” according to the complaint filed in Jones County Circuit Court. “These parties were hosted by their drug-dealing son Brandon, who, with his intoxicated guests, failed to protect the small children in their care from an unreasonable risk of harm. It was a recipe for disaster that could have been avoided with an ounce of prevention.”
Priscilla Rose was at the residence that day with her mother, who had the young girl for weekend visitation after divorcing the father. Blakeney operated a drug-dealing business out of the Butlers’ pool house, where he lived, and they knew it because he was arrested for it days before the drowning death, according to the complaint. The girl’s mother, Blakeney and others were swimming with her before they got out of the water and went in the poolhouse “to refuel on drugs and alcohol,” with no one watching Priscilla Rose, “owing in large part to the fact they were out of their minds on alcohol and drugs.” The Butlers were also on the property at the time, the complaint continued.
By the time anyone realized she was missing, she had drowned. Rescue officials’ efforts to resuscitate her were futile.
The Butlers failed to provide a barrier around the pool and to provide other safety devices, such as a secure door or a warning alarm or a “rope-and-float,” as required by city ordinance to “protect people like Priscilla from precisely the type of harm that befell her — accidental drowning.”
The young girl’s death caused her father “pain, suffering and mental anguish” in addition to funeral and burial expenses, as well as “future loss of love, society and companionship” from his daughter, according to the complaint. “Priscilla experienced the pain, suffering and terror of drowning.”
The child’s mother, now Gabriella Smith of Bay Springs, was arrested for possession of a controlled substance while in possession of a firearm in March 2019, but she completed the Jones County Drug Court program and had her record expunged. She was married to Glenn for about three months in 2015 and had another marriage that spanned about three months in 2022.
She denied doing drugs on the day of the drowning and noted that it was the first time she’d met the Butlers and Blakeney, with whom she had a mutual friend, according to responses she gave to questions that were filed in the complaint. Priscilla Rose had on arm floats when she was in the pool but had apparently removed them before getting back in, her mother claimed. She also contended that the child’s father did not pay for funeral expenses, providing a receipt showing that her great uncle and great aunt paid the $6,451 bill.
“I was using the restroom while my daughter drowned, where she was suppose (sic) to have followed me inside, but she did not,” Smith said, adding that Blakeney was “just arriving back from the gas station” at the time. “The day of the incident, I did not see him engaged in any drug-related activities while we were at his residence.”
Blakeney died of an apparent overdose in December 2021 following a 14-year battle with addiction, his mother wrote in a Facebook post.
The incident was investigated by the Laurel Police Department and the Jones County District Attorney’s Office, but no criminal charges were filed because there was no proof that it was anything but a tragic accident, officials said. The case was presented to a Jones County grand jury, which declined to indict anyone involved in the incident.
That led to protests in front of the LPD, with members of Glenn’s family — and even Smith’s family — calling for some sort of action to be taken against the girl’s mother.
“(My sister) should have gone to jail the day it happened,” Isabella Parker said at the protest. “Priscilla shouldn’t have lost her life so her mother could get high.”
Stringer said, “Even when we got to the hospital, the doctors said drugs were involved. They said, ‘We need the police here.’ Everyone at that house was high as a kite.”
Since the settlement after the ordeal of four-plus years, Stringer said she is encouraged to tell others “not to give up just because one or two lawyers are not willing to help.”
Weldy took the case after a previous attorney dropped it, saying that pursuing it would be “futile,” Weldy posted. “(T)he case was far from ‘futile’ when handled by a competent and diligent lawyer. Had this family taken the advice of their first lawyer, they would have been left with nothing.”
Smith and the Butlers did not respond to messages seeking comment.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7rbHAnZyrZZOWua16wqikaKaVrMBwstGenJimlazAcK%2FArJxmm5ykwKawjJ%2Bmq2Wgp7a0r8ilo5ploqTApnvAq6uim5yarHOxlp5wb3BgYoJ1fJFmaGqdlWKFo6%2BVZmxsbGZusXKuk2xocGaYqbqt