By LAURA ITALIANO
June 5, 2008
When 6-year-old Taylor Webster complained her neck hurt, her foster mom gave her a teaspoon of children's Motrin, two cupcakes, some juice - and a narcotic medication patch designed to treat three days worth of chronic, severe adult pain.
"She said that she felt much better," the foster mother, Joanne Alvarez, later told police. But Taylor died in her East Harlem bed within 16 hours.
Yesterday in Manhattan Supreme Court, Alvarez pleaded not guilty to criminally negligent homicide charges as prosecutors released her confession.
Alvarez told cops it was her own prescription patch she'd applied to the girl; it belonged to an adult acquaintance, police learned later.
