A Curtis Bay woman pleaded guilty Tuesday in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court to child abuse resulting in death and involuntary manslaughter in the 2024 fentanyl overdose death of her 23-month-old son, according to the Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney’s Office. Brooke Houck, 29, also pleaded guilty to neglect of a minor, first- and second-degree child abuse, and reckless endangerment. Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 20.
Police were called to the 8100 block of Holly Road in Curtis Bay on the evening of July 21, 2024, for a report of an unresponsive child. Officers met Houck and her husband, Nathan Houck, who directed them to their son, Landon, who wasn’t breathing. Paramedics took the boy to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead; the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner later determined he died of a fentanyl overdose. According to the State’s Attorney’s Office, Houck told investigators the family had been watching a movie on the couch for about two hours before they found Landon face down and unresponsive, and that she had recently relapsed and believed her son may have found an empty drug capsule.
Nathan Houck, who was also responsible for Landon and his three siblings living in the home, pleaded guilty to child neglect in October 2025 and was sentenced to five years, with all but 18 months suspended, along with a requirement to complete drug treatment.
“As parents, it is our duty to shield and protect our children, who rely on our care to keep them safe,” State’s Attorney Anne Colt Leitess said in a statement, adding that Landon’s mother “put her addiction ahead of his well-being by actively purchasing, using, and leaving drugs within his reach.”
Houck’s guilty plea to first-degree child abuse carries significant weight under Maryland law: when that charge results in the death of a victim under 13, it’s punishable by up to life in prison, while involuntary manslaughter carries a separate maximum of 10 years. Her actual sentence, which will be determined Nov. 20, could reflect any combination of the pleas entered.
The case is not the first of its kind the office has prosecuted recently. Leitess’s office also prosecuted a Glen Burnie mother, sentenced earlier this year to 10 years after her 2-year-old daughter died of a fentanyl overdose in a similar 2024 incident — two cases, both involving toddlers and parental drug use, within the same county in the same year.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant State’s Attorneys Shane Nolan and Anastasia Prigge. The Honorable Stacy McCormack presided.
