Lack of evidence leads to fewer convictions

By Linda Cicoira

A Horntown resident got a break in Accomack Circuit Court Thursday when it was disclosed that a hospital’s chain of custody regarding her 12-year-old daughter’s drug test was insufficient to convict the woman of distributing the white powder to a minor and abuse and neglect of a child.

Thirty-six-year-old Rebecca Jan Lillian Collins-Sard, of Blue Heron Road, pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of fentanyl in January 2025 and was sentenced to five years in prison with all but two years of the term suspended. Upon release, she will be on 10 years of good behavior

“You’re a lucky woman,” Judge Lynwood W. Lewis Jr. said. “You’re lucky they have problems with this case. That’s a terrible set of facts. I can’t even see a world in which that happened,” the judge added.

     Assistant Commonwealth Attorney Michael Baker said the girl told authorities that her mother offered her a white powder, saying it was candy and that she should snort it. The daughter was visiting relatives in the area and went back to Arkansas, which was another reason the other charges weren’t pursued.