Teenage mother arrested for allegedly putting fentanyl in 9-month-old's bottle — a dose large enough to kill 10 adults

Florida police arrested a teenage mother last week for allegedly putting a fatal dose of fentanyl in her 9-month-old son's bottle.

Nassau County sheriff deputies responded to a house in northern Florida on June 26. A distressed 911 call reported that a 9-month-old inside the house was not breathing and had no pulse. A responding officer performed CPR on the infant, but the child was declared dead at a Jacksonville hospital.

According to Nassau County Sheriff Bill Leeper, the child's 17-year-old mother initially told police she didn't know what happened.

But her story changed in subsequent interviews. Finally, the mother confessed last Tuesday to drugging her young son, telling police that on the day of her son's death, she was tired and wanted her son to sleep. So she put what she claimed she believed was cocaine in her son's Micky Mouse baby bottle.

Tragically, the drug was not cocaine — but fentanyl.

"On July 10, we received information from the medical examiner's office that the child had 29 nanograms per milliliter of blood in his system, and the cause of death was ruled 'fentanyl overdose,'" Leeper explained at a press conference. "The medical examiner also stated that 3 nanograms per milliliter of blood would kill a normal person like me."

That amount of fentanyl, Leeper went on to say, was enough to kill about 10 adult humans.

"Who does that? What mother would do that? That's not normal. That is sick. It's beyond my imagination why a mother would do that to her child," he said. "No one should lose their life to this terrible, deadly drug — especially an innocent baby."

The mother — whose name was not released because of Marsy's Law — was charged with aggravated manslaughter and possession of a controlled substance.

Phillip Word, the child's 17-year-old father, told WJXT-TV that he remains in a state of disbelief that his son is dead and said he hopes the baby's mother receives harsher criminal charges.

9-month-old dies after 17-year-old Nassau County mother puts fentanyl in child’s bottle, sheriff...www.youtube.com

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!