A mother has been sentenced to a term of 18 to 23½ years in prison for allowing her boyfriend to fatally abuse her six-year-old daughter. Ashley Fagan pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including permitting child abuse, endangering children, involuntary manslaughter, and obstructing justice.
Emergency services responded to a 911 call at the family residence on April 13, 2025, where they found six-year-old Eva Bretz in critical condition. Despite efforts to save her, Eva succumbed to her injuries at Nationwide Children’s Hospital hours later.
An autopsy revealed that Eva had sustained long-term injuries consistent with physical and sexual abuse, including bruising, ligature marks on her neck, a lacerated liver, and healing fractures in her ribs and pelvis. Traces of fentanyl were also found in her system.
Initially, Fagan claimed that Eva had been playing outside late at night and got caught in a tree branch, but surveillance footage contradicted this account. Text messages between Fagan and her boyfriend, Blake Hutchinson, dating back to October 2024, were uncovered, showing attempts to cover up the abuse.
During Fagan’s plea hearing, Eva’s grandfather expressed disappointment in Fagan’s failure to protect her daughter from prolonged abuse. Fagan’s attorney emphasized that while she did not physically harm Eva, she neglected her duty as a parent to ensure the child’s safety.
Fagan admitted guilt to various charges related to Eva’s death and injuries to another child in 2023. Hutchinson, the boyfriend, also implicated in Eva’s death, took his own life before facing arrest.
Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Richard Brown sentenced Fagan according to the plea agreement, expressing personal anguish over the case due to his own family connections. Brown condemned Fagan’s inaction as “unjustifiable” and “heinous,” emphasizing the gravity of failing to protect a child, especially one’s own.
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