LI Dad Who Admitted Guilt In Baby's Death In 'Tremendous Pain, Grief Over Loss': Attorney

LONG ISLAND, NY — The Long Island father who pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Monday in connection with the drug overdose death of his toddler is in tremendous pain — and is grieving his loss, his attorney said.

Wilkens Adonis will serve five to 15 years in state prison under a plea agreement offered by the Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney's office.

After conducting an autopsy, the Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s Office concluded that the
cause of death of Adonis' son, Joseph, was acute mixed drug intoxication by a mixture of heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl, according to Tierney's office.

Joseph's death "represents one of the most heartbreaking cases our office has ever handled,” Tierney said.

“Because of this defendant’s extreme recklessness here, we were able to charge him with manslaughter," he said. "In most cases like these, we cannot charge
manslaughter or murder, and that’s why we need the New York Legislature to pass Chelsey’s Law.”

Chelsey’s Law is named for Chelsey Murray, a 31-year-old Suffolk resident who died from fentanyl poisoning attributed to a nefarious drug dealer in August 2022, authorities said. Lawmakers are seeking to add more teeth to the law to make way for manslaughter charges in cases of drug overdose.

Adonis' attorney, Matthew Tuohy of Huntington, called Joseph Adonis' death "a terrible tragedy."

"My client has been in tremendous pain and grief over this loss," Tuohy told Patch.

Adonis, along with Daryllee Leibrock, were indicted last year in connection with the finding of drugs in the apartment they shared with the toddler and an 11-year-old child, Tierney's office previously said.

The 39-year-old from Holbrook "has accepted full responsibility and had done a tremendous amount of therapy in the jail," according to Tuohy.

"He is humble and dedicated to turning his life around for the benefit of his other children and his loved ones," he added.

Adonis is due back in court for sentencing on April 17, online court records show.

On the morning of Jan. 3, 2024, Suffolk police responded to a 911 call reporting an unresponsive child at a home in Holbrook, and when they arrived, officers found Adonis, Leibrock, and the unresponsive toddler, Joseph Adonis, in the couple’s bedroom, prosecutors said.

The toddler was taken by ambulance to Stony Brook University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to prosecutors.

Police detectives found drugs in the bedroom where the child was found unresponsive, prosecutors said, adding that as a result, Suffolk police's narcotics section were called to help with the investigation.

A search warrant of the apartment was executed, and law enforcement found over one-eighth of an ounce of a mixture of heroin and fentanyl, over one-eighth of an ounce of cocaine, alprazolam, drug packaging materials, two digital scales used to weigh drugs, an electronic stun gun, a loaded shotgun, and a rifle — all of which were unsecured and easily accessible to the children, according to prosecutors.

Leibrock was also the subject of Family Court orders of protection that prohibited her from being around either child, as well as from possessing illegal drugs that created an unreasonable risk to the health, safety, or welfare of either child, prosecutors said.

Preliminary toxicology results showed the presence of multiple substances in the child’s blood, including cocaine, fentanyl, morphine, and 4-anpp, a fentanyl precursor, as well as Norfentanyl, a metabolite of fentanyl, and Benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine, according to prosecutors.