Incarcerated woman booked on murder charge in Hernando

SPRING HILL – A woman sentenced to five years in prison for injecting her 16-year-old daughter with an opiate is now facing a first-degree murder charge in the drug overdose death of another woman.

According to the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office, Meghan White, 38, was at the Microtel at 6298 Nature Coast Boulevard in Spring Hill in August 2012 with Krista Rodgers.

Rodgers, 22, died as a result of a drug overdose at the hotel.

When questioned by detectives, White admitted to injecting Rodgers with an illegal narcotic, which resulted in her death.

The sheriff’s office was not able to provide details into how White and Rodgers knew each another.

The case was presented Nov. 20 to a grand jury, which indicted White in connection with Rodgers’ death, according to the sheriff’s office.

A warrant was prepared for White’s arrest on one charge of first-degree murder.

Deputies transferred White, also known as Meghan Jean Hughes, from Lowell Correctional Institute to the Hernando County Jail on Wednesday.

White was serving a five year sentence at Lowell Correctional after signing a plea deal in May for injecting her 16-year-old daughter with Dilaudid in December 2012 at a Brooksville hotel, four months after Rogers’ death.

White gave her daughter Methadone the following day to prevent sickness, according to investigators.

She was charged with child abuse and possession of a controlled substance without a prescription in that case.

Court documents show White said she injected her daughter so she wouldn’t injure herself.

At a sentencing hearing, White admitted she was a “junkie” who had been shooting up for a decade, and said her daughter had a pill problem and stole from her family to fuel it.

“She threatened me that day . I tried to help her, that’s all I did,” White said during the sentencing. “I love her and I don’t know what I’d do without her.”