Photo: Ashley Kromoff
A Gassville woman found passed out in a local motel with her 2-year-old daughter sleeping heavily in the next bed appeared in Baxter County Circuit Court Thursday.
Twenty-six-year-old Ashley Kromoff pled guilty to the charges against her in the Baxter County case and the revocation of a sentence in a Marion County case. She was sentenced to 12 years in prison, with two suspended and 10 to serve.
She was arrested in early May last year after an anonymous tip to Mountain Home police led officers to a room at the Executive Inn, where Kromoff was reportedly staying.
The male who called police said he was worried about the small child in the room with Kromoff and wanted police to conduct a welfare check.
Two officers from the Mountain Home Police Department (MHPD) responded and were told by the motel manager a man, woman and small child had been in the room, but the male left. The manager told officers he believed the woman and child were still inside.
According to the probable cause affidavit, the motel manager knocked on the door and yelled for someone inside to respond. When no one opened the door, the officers told the manager to let them in so they could perform a welfare check on the occupants.
When the door was opened, they saw Kromoff apparently passed out in one bed with the then 2-year-old in the other.
The officers attempted to wake Kromoff with verbal commands with no result. An officer then shook her and eventually had to pull her out of the bed and shake her to get her to respond in any way.
According to court records, Kromoff was apparently heavily under the influence of a drug and very disoriented.
There were several plastic bags in the room containing a white crystal-like substance, along with a plastic bag with a green leafy material. In addition, the officers observed paraphernalia used for the ingestion of drugs.
Kromoff was reported to have been upset and not cooperative with the officers.
Personnel from the Department of Human Services (DHS) were called to the scene to take charge of the small child. The officers noted the little girl remained asleep during the commotion surrounding the attempt to wake her mother and appeared sluggish after being awakened.
A DHS investigator took the little girl into protective custody. She was taken to Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, where she was found to have methamphetamine in her system.
When the report came back, the charge of introducing a controlled substance into the body of another was added to Kromoff’s existing charges of possessing methamphetamine, marijuana, paraphernalia to ingest the drugs and endangering the welfare of a minor.
On the day Kromoff was arrested at the motel, the MHPD officers said during their search of the room, they found no clothing for the child.
According to court records, Kromoff did enter an addiction treatment program at Care Center Ministries in Mountain Home. There are no records showing whether she completed the program.
Because of the charges in Baxter County, a revocation petition was filed in a 2015 drug-related case opened against Kromoff in Marion County.
She was arrested, along with a male identified as Scott Willett in late September 2015. According to the probable cause affidavit, the pair made three drug sales either to undercover officers or informants working with law enforcement in a two-day period.
When the vehicle she occupied was stopped and Kromoff was taken into custody, she was reported to have had a small child with her. The child had also been present when one of the drug sales was made.
She admitted to officers she had recently used drugs and said she was selling them to support her child.
Kromoff was sentenced to 10 years probation on April 27, 2016 in the Marion County case. Her sentence was revoked and will run concurrent with the one imposed in Baxter County.
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