Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Mother of Boy Drowned in Toilet Learns Punishment, Grandma Outraged

Episode Date: August 19, 2024

Blu Rolland's remains were found under the floorboards of the home where he was living with his mother, her boyfriend, and his older sister on what would have been his fifth birthday in December 2022. Nathan Bridges, the boyfriend of Blu's mother, pleaded guilty to drowning Blu in a toilet. Now, his mother, Ashley Rolland, has pleaded guilty to her role in the crime and for abusing Blu's sister. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy talks with Blu's grandma, Karen Rolland, about the guilty pleas and losing her grandson in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Get 50% off of confidential background reports at https://www.truthfinder.com/lccrimefix and access information about almost anyone!Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guests: Karen RollandJonna Spilbor https://www.instagram.com/jonna_spilbor/CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law & Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Just every day that I know my grandson is not here and I can't bring him back. Blue Rollins' grandmother is speaking about losing the grandson she loved so dearly days after his mother pleaded guilty to her role in his murder. It was just pure evil that they had to endure. Karen Rowland is here talking about her loss and how Blue's sister is doing after suffering abuse and witnessing her younger brother's murder.

Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. The murder of Blue Rowland is heartbreaking. He should still be here. We told you last month that his mother's boyfriend, Nathan Bridges, pleaded guilty to murder of Blue Roland is heartbreaking. He should still be here. We told you last month that his mother's boyfriend, Nathan Bridges, pleaded guilty to murdering Blue. Bridges drowned Blue in a toilet in September of 2022. The details are horrific, and what makes it more tragic is the fact that Blue's mother knew what happened and helped cover up the crime by helping bury Blue's body under the floorboards of the home where they were living. Blue and his older sister were being abused and Blue was murdered.

Deputies in Lee County, Arkansas were called to the home in December of 2022 after receiving a call from the grandmother of Blue and his sister. Ashley Rowland's father was there and told deputies that his daughter had told him that Blue was dead inside the home. The affidavit says deputies located where Blue was reported to be and rendered aid if he was alive. Deputies located where Blue was reported to be and found newly nailed down boards. Deputies removed the boards and found disturbed earth underneath. Deputies removed the top layer of the earth and found a child's flip-flop shoes and a red and blue blanket. Removing the top layer of the earth and found a child's flip-flop shoes and a red and blue blanket. Removing the top layer of the earth released the pungent odor of decay.

Ashley Rowland told detectives that Blue died on September 9, 2022. Blue Rowland had angered her boyfriend Nathan Bridges by biting his finger when Bridges stuck it in Blue's mouth. Bridges took Blue to the bathroom and as punishment repeatedly placed Blue's head in the water-filled toilet until he drowned him. Nathan cut a hole in their wooden floor in the living room while Blue was in the bathroom with Bridges. When Bridges exited the bathroom, Roland entered the bathroom and saw Blue struggling to breathe and his body was limp. Ashley Roland told detectives that Bridges burned Blue's sister Taylor by holding her head and upper torso under hot water to punish her for behavior issues. They had also cut off Taylor's hair and deprived her of food. I spoke with Karen Rowland,

Blue and Taylor's grandmother, about the plea agreements prosecutors made with Ashley, the mother of Blue, and his sister Taylor. I'm very disappointed. I'm feeling a lot of anger, anxiety, just like the system was unfair about it. I mean, you go from being charged with first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse that's the main one that really gets me because i mean you actually buried him under your house and the smell was ungodly the the guy that came out there he said that he had to change his mask like three times because the scent kept coming through it and you know there was no viewing of him because you can only imagine what it looked like and that's something I'm going to witness because everyone says I shouldn't put myself through it but when you go to a funeral you get to see the body but I just I want this

closure on it kind of because you know I just want to know every detail I want to know how he felt what he went through and I can only imagine I mean his kids were there at the time when it happened and he told ashley to take them into the room and according to them she just sat in the couch in the living room and that they could hear his screams help me you know help me and he can only imagine the pain that he felt going through such a process and she didn't bust down the door she didn't stop it you know she allowed it to happen and then the you know i was told that when taylor got burned she did stop tried to stop that. But it did continue and that she kind of got burnt a little bit from it.

But I would have picked up a heavy skillet or something and just started fighting him. Then that would have made him stop, you know. I mean, there's no, there's no way. I just can't believe that something like that could have happened, that she didn't try to at least let him out the door. Karen said she was not consulted about these plea agreements for Ashley or Nathan Bridges. She talked about how difficult it was to stand in court and to read her victim impact statement during Ashley's plea hearing. When I said my statement, I got like one word out and I asked the advocate lady, I said, can you please read this for me? Because I was breaking down. And she

says, no, I can't read it for you. So I tried to gather myself, but I couldn't't I was looking at her and in my statement I said I mean I treated you like you're a family I treated you like you were my daughter and when I look at you now I see my daughter but then I see this person that I don't know that let this happen I I said, you know, you got out of the marriage with my son because of problems. Why couldn't you get out of and make a phone call? She had a phone that could make phone calls. And she did not, they asked, the state asked her, why didn't you call your dad? You know, why didn't you pick up and call 911 while he was gone at times? She never did. I mean, you can allow a man to come in your life, children, that's, I would love no one, you know, except for my kids. If I had any man that's going to not accept them as their own.

And for him to sit there and treat them like that. He was hung on a nail by his clothes. And left him hanging there and laugh at him. Then I heard that he was stuck up in the ceiling fan and let the blades hit him, you know, as punishment. You know, like, well, what were they doing so bad that you were being punished like that? It was just pure evil that they had to endure. I asked Karen whether Ashley said anything, whether she even apologized for not protecting her little boy. That's one thing she did do. Her first statement words were, she looked me directly in the eye, directly, and told me, she says, Karen,

I know that you've always been there for the kids and I'm grateful for that and I'm grateful that you have them that you have Taylor and that I know that you will always take care of her and I said you dang straight I will you and then she went on to talk about how Blue was such a kind-hearted little boy and that he was quiet soul and loving and everything. But she didn't talk about Tyler. That really affected me because she didn't say anything about apology for how she got abused and how she just said that she failed as a parent and that she knows that and that she's guilty of

that and then it was like it was short but the whole time that she looked at me she did cry and she looked at me and when they asked me and the lawyer read my statement I was like I was going to pass out and asked me what did I want to sit down. I said no I don't want to sit down. I want to look her eye to eye and I want her to know exactly how I feel how she's affected my life and I wish that I had brought Taylor but Taylor just wanted to hug her mom and she asked me to hug her mom while I was there because as a kid you want to love your parents and you never forget that feeling so I don't think Ashley really abused her and put her hands on her and spanked her, but she allowed it to happen. That's my problem. You're just as guilty whether you did it or not, because

I would have took a gun and a bullet from my kids and I would have sat there and let him just shoot me and shoot me. Cases like this one go to show you that you have to take steps to keep yourself safe. Truthfinder.com is a website that can help you research the people that you meet each day. Truthfinder.com will give you a lot of information about a person, including past addresses and criminal history. Just put in a person's name and you will get past criminal records, traffic tickets, addresses, and the names of relatives. What's really great about Truthfinder, it will also give you the addresses of sex offenders who live in your neighborhood.

If you want to try Truthfinder, I have a great deal for you. You can get 50% off of confidential background reports. Just log on to www.truthfinder.com slash lccrimefix. Log on and start accessing information about almost anyone. Now, as I mentioned earlier, Blue was murdered in a horrific way and he had also been abused and so was Taylor. Karen talked about how Taylor is still struggling from the abuse. She won't take a hot bath. It has to be literally cold. Because if it's at least a little bit warm, she still has the scars from the water where she was standing

and she's had blisters on her feet. And she couldn't walk. We had to pick her up and carry her to the bathroom at the hospital. And then they exercised with her. And it took the whole entire week. And so we had to get some house shoes that had a real thick cushion on the back so that she could finally start walking. And I recorded that and put it on Facebook so that people would actually know how she looked and how she was and you know her teacher um from the wind school came and she just sat and um cried because

she said that wasn't her tailor and that um you know and just every day that I know my grandson is not here and I can't bring him back and for them to drop some of the charges and not give them the full thing I mean what human does that I would have said charges are dropped. You're going to get the full charges. You're at least getting life without no parole. That's the justice that I wanted. I don't want to hear that they're going to be up for parole one day. Karen said when she picked up Taylor after Blue's body was discovered, she didn't even recognize her. That's how badly she had been treated. She was 36 pounds when I picked her up. I mean, you could see her bones and it was like, when she first come to the door, I told him, I said, this is not Taylor. This is Blue because

Blue was a real tiny little fella. And she said, no, this is Taylor. And Taylor didn't recognize me. So when I picked her up, I could tell that she couldn't walk. So I immediately picked her up and put her in my arms. And then I told the officer, I said, she's soaking wet with urine. And I said, well, I'm taking her to the emergency room and he's like ma'am I understand you have all rights to so he walked behind me and then he got between his car and my car and made sure that we went away but usually she's running to me and saying hey ma'am so then as I was driving down

the road first thing she asked for is do you have something to drink and do you have something to eat so I had saltine crackers and I had a drink that was like apple juice or something in my car and it took her a while because she had to take that and then I says, Taylor, do you know who I am? And she says, yeah, you're Memo, Memo Karen. And I said, yeah, baby, I am. And then she asked for something else to drink. And I said, honey, I don't have any more. And then she says, Memo, I'm sorry, but I just about eat all those crackers. And I'm like, don't worry about it. You'll never have to start our hunger again, you know.

And when she got to the hospital, they went and got her McDonald's because she would just absorb everything. She ate more than I've ever ate sitting down in one period. And I said, she can order whenever she wants, whatever she wants. And I mean, she just could not get enough food. She just felt like she wasn't going to get any tomorrow food, you know. And it was just heartbreaking to see. Thankfully, Taylor is getting therapy for what she has been through, and Karen said she wants the world to know what happened to Blue and Taylor so that people can learn from what had happened.

I want the whole world to know. I want everyone to know and be educated. Arkansas should not be able to have grandparents rights and I wished I knew the avenue to go I would be a speaker and an advocate for that because if they had given me grandparent rights all I had was supervised where I could supervise the visits with my son while he was there because he wasn't allowed to take them off anywhere and I always had to be with the kids supervised so she said that because he has the rights that grandparents don't so then I don't have any rights and I've even called the law at times and they was like ma'am I'm sorry you can't just get the kids because it has to be the uh the father even

though you have the supervised uh she has to approve that you can take them with you and she has the right to say, no, they can't go. So that just angers me. Now, if what those children went through wasn't bad enough to add insult to injury, Karen's friend had organized a GoFundMe to help her and Taylor following Blue's death. But Karen says that fundraiser made them ineligible for victims compensation funds from the state that they could use. The State Victims Act was supposed to give us up to $10,000. And because the money came from donations, then it uh told that that was uh one of the things that threw us out of being able to get that money because it was from donations that money could go for i've had to

quit work because i can't function because i i worked a little bit but it was just on my mind so much that I just couldn't function anymore. You know, every time I go into Walmart, I live in a small town and everyone comes up to me and asks me, you know, Taylor goes up to everyone and says, hi, what's your name? My name's Taylor Rowland. And my brother died, you know, and she's telling everyone to just try to, you know, to express her feelings, you know, and everyone says she shouldn't just go around telling everyone and ask them for hugs. But that's what she's needing. She's wanting just love. Right. I want to bring in Jonna Spillbore. Jonna, you and I talked about this case when Nathan Bridges pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 60 years. Now we have Ashley Rowland, Blue Rowland's mother, being sentenced to 40 years and pleading guilty to her role in Sweet Blue's murder.

So 40 years, you kind of were disgusted by this case as any human being would be. You didn't think 60 years was necessarily a harsh enough sentence. So 40 years, you kind of were disgusted by this case as any human being would be. You didn't think 60 years was necessarily a harsh enough sentence. So how do you feel about mom who should have been protecting her son getting 40 years? This case, I remember when we talked about it, it really viscerally like got me in the gut. You too. Like just thinking about what that poor boy went through in the moments before his death six i still feel 60 years is not enough for the perpetrator the boyfriend but uh mom getting 40 years the he my concern with her was that there was some evidence that this monster

who killed blue was a batterer and an abuser and that she was under some sort of, for lack of a better word, spell by him so that you could be a smidge more forgiving for her. You know, 20 years more forgiving, I guess, maybe, but still, I think 40 years is a light sentence given that she had opportunity to step in and save her child, allowed him to be buried under the floorboards, didn't say a word about it, despite having opportunity to do so, it still gets me in the gut. At least she will be in jail long enough to not be a mother to anyone else. So I guess that is a saving grace. And will be around 67 years old or so when she is released from prison.

I mean, prison's hard. It's not an easy life. And she is in there not only for the murder of Blue and not protecting him, but also for abusing his sister who endured horrific abuse and who, I mean, it is so sad, Jonna, that little girl endured horrible abuse. She witnessed her poor little brother being drowned in that toilet.

I mean, this is a girl who will go through the rest of her life with these memories, these scars. And she was physically scarred as well because she was burned with hot water. Right. And that breaks a person. And when you're that young, you hope that she'll be able to, with therapy and help, overcome. But I mean, come on, Anjanette. When you need to be protected by the person who brought you into this world and you're not, and you see that person as somebody who does not step up and protect you and do, and you see that person as somebody who does not step up and protect you and do the things that a mother or a parent is supposed to do, that will stay with you for the rest of your life. And she lost a brother. So again, I think that the

perpetrator should be behind bars for life or worse. And mom, I'm grateful she did not get off scot-free because again, and we've talked about this in other cases, you can have a sympathy factor for a mother who may herself be abused or a mother who doesn't have resources or a mother who is going through something mentally and is weak in that regard. We can have a twinge of sympathy, but this case really gets you in the gut and i don't have a whole lot of sympathy for this mother that's just me but obviously somebody did because she's not going also going to jail for 60 years or longer and we're trying to get some more information about how this case was resolved in this way obviously a trial you, they didn't feel that they needed to take this to trial.

But I think that Blue's grandmother would have liked to have seen a trial because she feels that would have been a way to get justice and possibly a harsher sentence for the horrific, horrific way that Blue died and for the abuse that his sister endured. Yeah, and that only goes so far, right? So these people are going to be in jail, prison for decades, and that is a good thing. But sometimes when we see these opportunities, we have to be more forward thinking. How can we prevent this from happening to other children in the future? You know, this little boy was five, I believe. How do you go from, you know, somebody who's supposed to be grabbing your lunchbox and going to kindergarten to somebody who's being drowned in a toilet and buried under the floorboards without anybody in your world being able to have the knowledge to stop it. We need to get more proactive and better at that. I don't want to cover any more dead children's stories. So, you know, if the lesson

should be, yeah, let them rot in prison, great, but we need to do better before that becomes necessary. No doubt. And Nathan Bridges will never get out of prison. I can safely say that. He will likely die in prison and there's a good chance that Ashley Rowland will as well. Johnna Spilbore, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thanks, Anjanette. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix.

I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.