Mother Was Complicit In 3-Year-Old Son's Fentanyl Overdose: Police

WEST SAINT PAUL, MN — Queennetta McDaniel, 29 of Maplewood, was charged with second-degree manslaughter after police said her 3-year-old son overdosed on fentanyl in West Saint Paul in 2020 and died.

If convicted, McDaniel faces up to 10 years in prison and/or will have to pay a fine of up to $20,000, according to the complaint. She was charged by warrant and is not yet in custody.

West Saint Paul police responded to a call at an apartment at 7:43 a.m. on Dec. 7, 2020, on a report of a 3-year-old not breathing, authorities said.

McDaniels told the police that the boy was her son and said she had been asleep with him on the couch, according to officials. She said she woke up to use the bathroom and when she got back, her son wasn't breathing and appeared to have thrown up, police said.

She said that her son had been conscious well at 11 p.m. the previous night, according to the criminal complaint.

The boy was brought to Children's Hospital in an ambulance, where he was pronounced dead despite life-saving efforts, police said.

Investigators found out that the apartment McDaniel and her son were staying at belonged to her friend, who was suspected of selling drugs, including fentanyl, according to police.

The Ramsey County Medical Examiner determined that the boy's cause of death was "acute fentanyl toxicity" and that the boy had a high level of fentanyl in his bloodstream at the time of his death, according to officials. No other possible cause of death was found, authorities said.

On the night of her son's death, police noticed behavior from McDaniel that indicated that she could be on drugs, officials said. Police got a search warrant for a blood draw and it came back with the presence of fentanyl, according to authorities.

Witnesses told police that McDaniel was a heavy drug user and used fentanyl around the time of her son's death, according to the criminal complaint. She had been seen by witnesses smoking fentanyl at the apartment her and her son were staying at, police said.

When police searched the apartment, they said they found drug paraphernalia.