A Missouri mother has been charged in the death of her teenage daughter, to whom she allegedly gave a lethal dose of fentanyl after she complained of a toothache.
Prosecutors in St. Louis on Thursday charged Jacquelyn Powers with first-degree endangering the welfare of a child, resulting in the death of a child, according to court documents.
Powers’ 14-year-old daughter had complained of a toothache on Oct. 3 at their home in Overland, a St. Louis suburb.
The mother first tried giving her child Tylenol for the pain, but when that didn’t work, she reportedly gave the teen a pill she found in her drawer.
About 10 hours after the teen took the pill, she was found dead, according to Overland police.
The mother told police she believed she had given her daughter oxycodone, which she said she had been given after a previous surgery. according to Fox 2 Now.
However, an autopsy revealed that the child had died of a fentanyl overdose and tested negative for the presence of oxycodone.
Powers told investigators that the reason she had the fentanyl pills was because she traded some of her oxycodone with her mother to “protect” her from dangerous pills she supposedly bought on the street.
Police said Powers then placed those pills in her drawer, which she eventually gave to her daughter.
Powers “admitted to giving the victim what she believed to be a prescription painkiller, while other drugs were located on the street in the home of other minor children,” an investigator said. deposit of the 21st Judicial Circuit Court in St. Louis County.
“This is tragic,” said Capt. Jim Morgan of the Overland Police Department Fox 2 Now.
“This shouldn’t be happening.”
Powers was arrested and led from her Overland home in handcuffs on Friday, according to the newspaper.
She is being held on a $150,000 bond in the St. Louis County Jail.
Powers is expected back in court on Nov. 19 for a bond reduction hearing.
Her preliminary hearing is scheduled for December 11.
“Endangering the welfare of a child in the first degree resulting in the death of a child” is considered a class A misdemeanor.
It is the most serious charge under this law.
It carries the harshest possible penalties because it indicates a situation where the welfare of a child was so seriously compromised that it led to death.
If Powers is found guilty, he could face up to life in prison with the possibility of parole under state law.
