Woman jailed for injecting nephew with heroin

updated 8:54 a.m. ET Nov. 30, 2006

MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. - A suburban Detroit woman who admitted injecting heroin into her 12-year-old nephew and giving him and her 15-year-old niece heroin and cocaine was sentenced to eight years in prison.

Jacqueline Ellen Vuich, 26, pleaded guilty Nov. 2 to delivery of narcotics to a minor, first- and second-degree child abuse, maintaining a drug house and keeping a person younger than 16 in a home where prostitution occurred. She was sentenced Wednesday by Macomb County Circuit Judge Matt Switalski.

Vuich’s daughter lived at a home rented by Vuich’s mother. Vuich was visiting Jan. 24 when she injected her nephew with heroin as he ate dinner. He was treated for a heroin overdose at a nearby hospital.

Mom is ‘probably not a good caregiver’
Jan Ruby Catton, 47, Vuich’s mother, was charged with maintaining a drug house and a house of prostitution, and with second-degree child abuse. She pleaded no contest and was sentenced Wednesday to two years’ probation.

“She is probably not a good caregiver,” Switalski said of Catton, who has lost custody of the eight grandchildren under her care.

“I am sorry,” said Catton. “I tried to help.”

Defense Attorney Timothy Barkovic said Vuich’s upbringing was a factor in her behavior. “All of this stemmed from the environment she grew up in,” he told The Detroit News.

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