Mother of slain 2-year-old will not be released from jail for drug treatment

The decision to release 28-year-old Lovina Rainey from jail to attend an unsecured drug rehabilitation facility in Coeur d’Alene while she awaits trial on federal drug trafficking charges was reversed Tuesday when a new judge ruled that she must remain in jail.

Prosecutors in the case filed a motion for review Monday, the day Rainey was set to be released on electronic monitoring to attend the Good Samaritan Rehabilitation Center in Kootenai County. A hearing was held Tuesday morning, where Chief Judge Thomas O. Rice ordered Rainey held in jail.

Detectives suspect that Rainey’s boyfriend, Jason Obermiller, killed her 2-year-old daughter, Adalynn Hoyt, while she was in Obermiller’s care. He is currently charged with second-degree murder in connection with her death, which the Medical Examiner determined was due to blunt force trauma to the abdomen.

After Hoyt’s death investigators found a large amount of methamphetamine and heroin in the home on 55th Avenue in addition to a gun, electronic scales and what appeared to be a ledger of drug sales. Both Rainey and Obermiller have reportedly admitted selling methamphetamine obtained from drug traffickers in the Tri-Cities area, according to court documents. She has since been evicted from the home and her three other children are in the custody of Child Protective Services.

Rainey is currently charged with possession of more than 50 grams of pure methamphetamine with intent to distribute and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

Rice noted Rainey’s confession to possessing and selling methamphetamine in his written decision. He also said she has a 13-year history of drug use and was using meth up to three times a day in the month before her arrest.

“Releasing a person with a serious drug addiction to an unlocked facility in another district does not protect the community,” Rice wrote.

Treatment and rehabilitation are “admirable goals” but an in-patient treatment program in another state would not allow Rainey to be readily available for court hearings and to assist her lawyer with her case, he wrote.

Rice also ruled against Rainey’s request for a furlough from jail to attend her daughter’s funeral.