Colorado mother found guilty in fentanyl-related death of baby
A Colorado woman was convicted on Friday of felony child abuse resulting in death after prosecutors said her 22-month-old son died from ingesting fentanyl while at her home three years ago.
Hanna Gilmour, 29, was arrested after the baby's father came to Gilmour's Littleton apartment to pick their son up for a custody exchange in November 2022 and said their son, Layton, "didn't look right." The father, Jacob Birkbeck, called 911 and first responders pronounced Layton dead.
"This was a senseless and preventable tragedy," Chief Deputy District Attorney Jake Adkins, who prosecuted the case, said in a statement. "Every parent has a responsibility to protect their child. Instead, their mother created an environment so dangerous that it cost her son his life."
Investigators said at the time that Gilmour and her boyfriend's apartment was "littered" with drugs, including cocaine, mushrooms, marijuana, and fentanyl. They believe Layton was crawling around and ingested fentanyl that was on the floor.
Gilmour is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 12. She faces between 16 and 48 years in prison.
Fentanyl overdose deaths have risen dramatically since 1999, reaching a record high of over 76,000 deaths in 2022, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, before dropping slightly to around 74,700 in 2023, the last year for which data is available.
Data on fentanyl deaths and exposure is far less comprehensive, according to America's Poison Centers, which maintains the National Poison Data System. The New England Journal of Medicine, however, identified 1,466 cases of illicit fentanyl exposure in children younger than 6 years of age between 2013 and 2023. Most of those cases occurred in the children's home and of those cases, 51 children had died.
Gilmour also has an open case in Garfield County from June 2025, where she faces charges of driving under the influence and violation of a civil protection order. She's scheduled to be arraigned in that case on Oct. 20.
