Susan Nicole Adkins wiped her eyes with a tissue and looked down at her feet.
"I wasn't expecting this. I just got that thing off my ankle," she said Thursday, standing near the front of Kanawha Circuit Judge Duke Bloom's courtroom.
Bloom commended Adkins for her hard work in a rehabilitation program and granted her motion for early release from the sentence he imposed two years ago. Adkins was convicted in December 2013 of child neglect creating a substantial risk of bodily injury or death.
For overdosing on heroin in front of her then-2-year-old son, Bloom sentenced Adkins, 41, in early 2014 to spend 15 weekends in jail, serve one to five years on home confinement, with a monitoring bracelet around her ankle, upon completion of an in-home drug rehabilitation program and to serve 10 years on supervised probation.
She graduated the drug program more than a year ago and March marked a year that she had spent on home confinement, said her attorney, Richard Holicker, a deputy public defender in Kanawha.
"She has gone above and beyond anything this court has asked of her," Holicker told the judge. "She has gone above and beyond any client I've ever had. If anybody has ever been rehabilitated, it's Susan Adkins."
Assistant Kanawha prosecutor Fred Giggenbach agreed that Adkins has turned her life around. He agreed with Holicker's motion that she should be granted early release.
"This is the kind of success story we like to see," said Giggenbach, who was the prosecutor at Adkins' trial. "The state pursued the case because it was very serious - an overdose in a vehicle with a child. We wanted to make sure your son was safe and make sure she was OK ... Your son is here, he looks happy and healthy."
On July 9, 2013, Adkins drove her car into an alley near McQueen and Red Oak streets on Charleston's West Side. While her son was strapped in his car seat in the back of the car on a hot summer day, Adkins passed out after injecting herself with heroin. Young boys, who lived nearby where Adkins was parked, alerted a neighbor who called 911, after seeing Adkins slumped over and her son crying in the vehicle.
"Thank you for not letting me off so easy," Adkins told the judge on Thursday. "I'm two years and five months clean."
She now works full-time at The Chop Shop hair salon, attends church three times a week at Keystone Apostolic Church, sees a therapist and attends weekly AA meetings, where she serves as a sponsor for women in the Mattie V Lee home program, where she attended rehabilitation. She regularly visits the Mattie Lee home.
"I go there every Wednesday, just to hang out. ... I hope I can help someone," said Adkins, of the rehabilitation home. Lisa Shepard, a team leader at the home, said Adkins is an inspiration for other women who are battling addiction. Shepard attended the hearing Thursday, along with members of the Keystone church. The courtroom was packed full of people who support Adkins.
The Mattie V Lee home, which has eight beds for women trying to overcome addiction, allows patients to live there with their children. Adkins' son, Kampton, who is now 5, was allowed to live at the rehabilitation home with her.
"My little one is here," Adkins told the judge Thursday. From the bench, Bloom waved at the boy.
"This is a success story," the judge said. "I know it wasn't easy. ... I'm so pleased with what you've done. You have fulfilled your obligation with the state.
"This case is dismissed from the docket," Bloom said.
Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.