Philadelphia Man Gets Prison Sentence for Feeding Cocaine to Baby

Originally published by The Associated Press, July 26, 2001

PHILADELPHIA — A former Ivy League medical resident who put cocaine in a 4-month-old boy's bottle to quiet him has been sentenced to five to 10 years in prison for the child's death.

Donald P. Ford, 43, was convicted of third-degree murder and reckless endangerment in the 1997 death of Sigmund Porter Jr. He was also sentenced Tuesday to one to two years in prison on drug distribution charges.

Ford and the child's mother, Andrea Blue, 39, were on a two-day drug binge at Ford's apartment when the child died. The cocaine was found in a baby bottle.

Ford graduated from Brown University and was a former psychiatry resident at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. Blue, a former nurse supervisor, was convicted of charges that included reckless endangerment. She was sentenced to 11½ months to 23½ months in prison.