MONTICELLO, NY — Four people have been charged in connection with the death of a 16-month-old girl at the Knights Inn in Liberty. 

The child, identified as Akasha Luvert, was found unconscious and unresponsive by officers with the Village of Liberty Police Department at approximately 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 2. Akasha was transported to Garnet Health-Catskills and was pronounced dead at approximately 9 p.m. 

Jimmie Luvert and Lisa Keitt, Akasha’s parents, were arrested that evening and charged with one count each of criminally negligent homicide and with two counts each of endangering the welfare of a child; the criminally negligent homicide charges have since been upgraded to second degree manslaughter. The charges allege that Luvert and Keitt used fentanyl with Akasha and her four-month-old brother present and unsupervised, and that Akasha ingested fentanyl that they left out, leading to her death. 

Jacob McCoy was arrested the following day, Wednesday, May 3, as the result of an investigation into the source of the drugs. McCoy has been charged with multiple counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance, including three counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance third degree with intent to sell, as well as criminal use of drug paraphernalia and tampering with physical evidence. Chief of police with the Village of Liberty Police Department, Steve D’Agata, said that a search of McCoy’s hotel room in the Monticello Inn recovered crack cocaine, fentanyl and MDMA. 

Lisa Ferdico-Vizard, the maternal grandmother of Akasha, was arrested on Friday, May 12 and charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child. According to D’Agata, it is alleged that Fredico-Vizard smoked crack cocaine in the motel room at the Liberty Inn hours before Akasha’s death. 

The opioid epidemic

D’Agata announced the results of the investigation at a Thursday, May 18 press conference, held by acting district attorney Brian Conaty. 

“I am the chief law enforcement officer in the county, and my office has been and will continue to be at the forefront of the battle to end the opioid epidemic once and for all,” said Conaty. “I will not tolerate anybody who seeks to sell fentanyl for their own personal gain at the expense of the entire Sullivan County community.”

The DA’s office will pursue a “Fentanyl Five” policy, announced Conaty: his prosecutors will seek a minimum of five years’ incarceration for anyone arrested for selling fentanyl. 

Conaty said that he would pursue charges against the four arrested in Akasha’s death to the greatest extent; he had made the decision to seek higher charges than the original criminally negligent homicide charges for Luvert and Keitt, and a grand jury had on Wednesday, May 17 agreed to indict on manslaughter in the second degree. 

“A death like this shocks the conscience,” said Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther, speaking at the conference. “It shocks the soul… we can never let this happen again.”

How did this happen?

The broader question Conaty raised was how Akasha’s death had happened, and what would be needed to keep it from happening again. 

The family had been under the supervision of child protective services (CPS), said Conaty. 

“[With investigation], I learned that CPS had requested the removal of these children on three separate occasions, and when CPS brought these concerns to their legal branch—the county attorney’s office—the county attorney himself, Mike McGuire, refused to institute removal proceedings as requested,” said Conaty. 

Sullivan County chose not to comment on this statement when asked by the River Reporter.

Conaty called for the reestablishment of a Department of Social Services legal department separate from the county attorney’s office, for the establishment of a substance use disorder unit within the family violence response team and for the expedited dispersal of opioid settlement funds to be used to fund overtime pay for police officers involved in similar cases.

Conaty assumed the role of acting district attorney on January 1, following the departure of DA Meagan Galligan; he is running for election to the role in the 2023 election cycle.