Long Island Toddler's Apparent Fatal Drug Overdose 'Wake-Up Call' To Albany: DA

HAUPPAUGE, NY — A Long Island couple was indicted on drug and weapon possession charges after their roughly 14-month-old son later died of a suspected overdose with preliminary toxicology tests showing he had a mixture of cocaine, fentanyl, and morphine in his system, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said Thursday.

Wilkens Adonis and Daryllee Leibrock, both 38 of Holbrook, were indicted in connection with the finding of drugs in the apartment they shared with the toddler and an 11-year-old child, Tierney's office said.

On the morning of Jan. 3, Suffolk police responded to a 911 call reporting an unresponsive child at a home in Holbrook, and when they arrived, law enforcement 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.

Suffolk police detectives responded to the home to investigate and found drugs in the bedroom where the child was found unresponsive, prosecutors said, adding that as a result, members of the department'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.

While the death of the toddler is under investigation, preliminary toxicology results showed the presence of multiple substances in the child’s blood, including cocaine, fentanyl, morphine, 4-anpp, one Norfentanyl, and Benzoylecgonine, according to prosecutors.

4-anpp is a fentanyl precursor, while Norfentanyl is a metabolite of fentanyl, and Benzolecgonine is a metabolite of cocaine.

“The death of a toddler from a suspected overdose of poisonous drugs is an unfortunate but not unexpected next step in the opioid overdose crisis, and should be a wake-up call to our Albany legislators that decisive action must happen now — children are dying,” Tierney said. “I urge every New Yorker to contact your legislators and demand that they address this crisis.”

Tierney recently traveled to Albany to support bi-partisan legislation that would allow drug suppliers to be charged with manslaughter in connection with fatal overdoses, adding Xylazine to the controlled substances list requiring a prescription, and allowing families who have lost loved ones to fatal overdoses to access crime victim funding.

At the time of their arrests in this case, Adonis and Leibrock each had open warrants for failure to appear in First District Court on misdemeanor criminal possession of a controlled substance charges.

The pair were indicted on two counts of third-and fourth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, and one count each of fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon and seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, as well as two counts of second-degree criminally using drug paraphernalia, the DA said.

He was additionally charged with one count of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
Leibrock was additionally charged with four counts of fourth-degree criminal contempt, Tierney said.

Leibrock was ordered held on $250,000 cash, $500,000 bond, or $2.5 million partially-secured bond during the pendency of the case.

Adonis's bail was set at a nominal $1 and he was placed on supervised release during the pendency of his case, but he remains in jail for his prior open criminal possession of a controlled substance case.

It was not immediately clear if the pair faces additional charges.

They are due back in court on Feb. 29.

Patch has reached out to Leibrock's attorney, Steve Fondulis of Port Jefferson.

Adonis' attorney, Matthew Tuohy of Huntington, said that he entered a not guilty plea.

“He was on the right track, and situated very differently than the boy’s mother,” he said. “In fact, he consented to the search of the house, as he was unaware of anything illegal there.”