Tracy Humphreys was a drug addict for 35 years.
She described herself as a horrible mother who put drug use before her children.
Heroin, meth, cocaine, gabapentin — she took whatever she could get her hands on.
Sixteen months ago, Humphreys got clean in jail. She said she found God.
But no amount of sobriety or piety can change Thomas Snelsire’s opinion of her.
To him, Humphreys will always be the woman who climbed over the dead body of his 1-year-old grandson — her baby — to go to the bathroom and get high.
On Thursday, an Allegheny County judge sent Humphreys to prison for 19 to 38 years after she pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and other charges for killing her son, Tommy Humphreys.
The murder weapons: a child’s syringe and plastic cup that held traces of liquid Tylenol and methadone, which is used to treat opioid dependence.
Allegheny County Deputy District Attorney Lisa Carey said Tommy, who was born dependent on heroin and fentanyl, was supposed to have been weaned off methadone after a week.
But Humphreys kept dosing him to keep him quiet, Carey said, so she could get high.
Investigators described the scene at Humphreys’ home on Oakleaf Road in Baldwin Borough as one of the worst they’d ever seen.
When they arrived on Sept. 14, 2020, they found stamp bags of heroin strewn about table tops and floors, and multiple doses of Narcan. There were syringes and rocks of crack cocaine drying on a paper plate on a dresser.
The medical examiner’s office found not only methadone in Tommy’s system, but traces of fentanyl and cocaine, too.
Allegheny County Police charged Humphreys and Tommy’s father, also named Thomas Snelsire, with criminal homicide.
Both parents pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in September 2022. But Humphreys asked to withdraw her plea prior to sentencing. She had been high at the time, having gotten drugs into her cell at the Allegheny County Jail.
Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Kevin G. Sasinoski granted her motion and moved Humphreys, 48, to the Butler County Prison, where she has been held ever since.
In March, Snelsire, 49, was sent to prison for 18 to 36 years after pleading guilty to third-degree murder.
On Thursday, it was Humphreys’ turn.
First she pleaded guilty for a second time
And then, before being sentenced, she spoke for several minutes in court, reading from a nine-page, handwritten statement held by her defense attorney, Brian Sichko.
She described the depths of her addiction, calling herself a “piece of [expletive] junkie.”
But she also talked about Tommy, affectionately known as “Chuck” by his grandparents because he had a big head like Charlie Brown.
Humphreys said that she and Tommy’s dad called him “Bubby.”
She described her son’s “big brown doe eyes,” and how he could pull himself up but not yet walk.
He loved when they did “soooo big,” with him, she said.
Humphreys called no witnesses on her behalf.
But Tommy’s grandfather spoke for the boy he loved.
Snelsire told the court that he understands that Humphreys has remorse.
But, he said, it’s not enough.
He told the court how he and his wife went to the Children’s Home of Pittsburgh every day to hold his grandson.
“The whole time he was there, his mother never showed up,” Snelsire said.
After listening to Humphreys’ statement, the prosecutor told the judge she felt compelled to make some corrections.
“The defendant wants us to believe this is the first opportunity she had to be clean,” Carey said.
But Humphreys had an extensive record of criminal charges, the prosecutor said, which would have allowed her to seek treatment.
Humphreys told the court that she was dedicating her life to helping women whose children accidentally overdose.
But Carey made clear that’s not what happened in this case.
”This was not a baby who died after accidental ingestion,” Carey said. “This is a baby who would be 4 1/2 years old today.”
