Clinton Township couple bound over for trial in fentanyl overdose death of toddler | Cops and Courts

A Clinton Township couple has been ordered to stand trial on homicide, child abuse, drug and weapons charges in the overdose death of their 18-month-old daughter on Christmas Day last year.

Attorneys for Antonio Davon Floyd, 28, and his girlfriend, 27-year-old Shantanice Nicole Barksdale, argued unsuccessfully following the conclusion of testimony at a preliminary hearing Friday in Warren district court that evidence against their clients was insufficient and therefore the case against them should be dropped.

Judge Suzanne Faunce disagreed, saying that while some of the evidence appears circumstantial, a trace of fentanyl was found in January on one piece of the narcotic paraphernalia found inside a locked safe kept in a bedroom closet of the couple’s apartment on Lotus Street.

Christmas morning in the couple’s home began like it does in many households with parents awakened by excited children eager to unwrap presents. The three kids, including the couple’s youngest child, 18-month-old Ava, opened their gifts. Later, Floyd’s brother prepared noodles for the kids as the couple planned to take the family to Warren to visit relatives.

At some point before 10:55 a.m. Dec. 25, Ava drank an unknown liquid from a glass, her 6-year-old sister testified Thursday with the courtroom closed to the public, prosecutors said. Ava later went to bed.

“She was a perfectly healthy, beautiful girl, enjoying Christmas with her family,” Warren Detective Cpl. James Twardesky testified Friday. “(Barksdale) said she noticed Ava sleeping hard and had Antonio take a picture of her because she thought it was cute.”

Ava was never seen awake again.

At approximately 2 p.m. Dec. 25, the couple and the three children went to the Warren home of Barksdale’s mother. Ava, dressed in pajamas and a coat, was brought inside in a child car seat carried by Floyd. Relatives gathered in the living room to open gifts.

Gabrielle Barksdale, 16, testified Friday that her niece appeared to be sleeping.

“I was like, ‘Ava, time to wake up,’” the teenager testified Friday. She unbuckled the toddler, took off her coat and placed the little girl on her lap. Gabrielle lifted one of Ava’s arms but it went limp. Gabrielle was the first to point out something was wrong.

Gabrielle accompanied Ava’s parents in a vehicle as they rushed the 18-month-old girl to Ascension St. John Macomb Hospital in Warren. As Floyd drove in left-turn lanes and through red lights, Shantanice Barksdale – Gabrielle’s sister — performed CPR on Ava, the teenager said.

“She said, ‘Tony, hurry up and get my baby to the hospital,’” she added.

A team of emergency room doctors and nurses tried for 30 minutes but were not successful in trying to resuscitate Ava, who had no pulse and was not breathing as she was carried into the hospital by her mom, according to previous testimony in the case Thursday by a nurse.

On Christmas night, detectives with search warrants checked the Warren home and the apartment in Clinton Township, looking for evidence of anything Ava may have ingested that killed her. Investigators found nothing.

On Jan. 8, 2019, Warren police were notified by the Macomb County Medical Examiner’s Office that toxicology reports showed the toddler’s blood had an “excessive” amount of fentanyl – a highly potent opioid – plus “asa fentanyl” both caused by “secondary intoxication.” Asa fentanyl has no legal use in the United States.

The Warren police Special Operations Unit later conducted surveillance of Floyd, Shantanice Barksdale and an unidentified child and followed them as they drove from Clinton Township to the same Warren home on Pinto Drive they visited on Christmas. A short time later, Floyd was followed by police as he drove alone to a home on Fairmount Street in the area of Gratiot and State Fair in Detroit.

Officer David Seibt testified several people pulled up to the house and went inside or were greeted by unidentified individuals who briefly came outside during the first hour. Seibt said such activity is known as “short stops” drug sales but could not identify anyone who came outside as Floyd.

Undercover officers later arrested Barksdale during a traffic stop on Jan. 10 for allegedly committing a misdemeanor and confiscated a cellphone from her, Twardesky said. Before police informed Barksdale during an interview that Ava died of a fentanyl overdose, she said she knew little about fentanyl, that nobody in her home had a prescription for it, and repeatedly said she and Floyd don’t take drugs or sell them, Twardesky said. The detective testified that when he told Barksdale the cause of Ava’s death, she said: “What? Oh no!”

Left alone in a room during a break in videotaped interview, video showed Barksdale speaking into a smartwatch that she had concealed beneath her sleeve. Police said data from the watch revealed a text message by her to a phone owned by Floyd, telling him that police were coming to the home to do a search and “to get rid of Sheila.” Police and prosecutors believe “Sheila” may have been a nickname for a phone.

Also in custody, Floyd agreed to be interviewed by detectives, who broke the news to him of the cause of Ava’s death.

“I was surprised by his lack of reaction,” Twardesky testified. “He just kind of looked at me, didn’t say anything, didn’t show any emotion.

“He said he had no idea of any fentanyl or drugs in the house.”

Warren police raided the Clinton Township and Warren homes in Jan. 10. Inside a closet of the master bedroom of the apartment, police found a safe. Police broke it open outdoors and recovered four digital scales; two “grinders” used for pressing powder into pills form; and hundreds of unscratched instant lottery tickets commonly used to bundle heroin for street sales. One grinder was examined at the Michigan State Police crime lab and had a slight amount of fentanyl on it, police said.

Floyd and Barksdale are charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter, second-degree child abuse, manufacturing a controlled substance less than 50 grams, possession with intent to deliver less than 50 grams of a mixture containing fentanyl, and possession of a firearm while committing a felony. Floyd, a convicted felon, also is charged with additional counts of felon in possession of a weapon and felony firearm possession.

Investigators reviewed posts on Facebook accounts they linked to Floyd and Barksdale. They also obtained a search warrant for an Instagram account associated with a phone number identical to one that Floyd provided to police at the hospital on Christmas Day. The records request produced 6,000 pages of Instagram posts going back years, police said.

Warren detectives said Floyd is shown on social media flaunting money either by holding it or posting wads or stacks of dollar bills, mostly bound with rubber bands. One post shows it bound with hair ties and the comment: “When you run out of rubber bands.”

Detective Cpl. Kevin Dailey, an expert in narcotics investigations, said the social media images and other items in the apartment including a razor blade that can be used for “cutting” – or mixing opioids with other medications or a vitamin – plus two loaded handguns he said were found in a cabinet above a microwave are evidence of “mid-level” drug dealing.

Defense attorneys Stephani Carson and Kareem Johnson asserted that prosecutors have insufficient evidence for Floyd and Barksdale to be bound over to circuit court for trial.

Johnson, representing Barksdale, blasted Warren police for drawing conclusions from social media images, including Floyd holding money or wearing expensive eyeglasses, that the couple was engaged in manufacturing or distributing drugs. The attorney said such pictures and video are popular in hip hop culture but on their own are not evidence of crime and should not lead to conclusions that someone is a drug dealer.

“That mentality by police is what causes unarmed African American men to be killed,” Johnson said.

He also argued that prosecutors have no proof of how the highly potent drugs got into Ava’s system.

“We don’t know how that happened,” Johnson said. “You can have theory all you want, but there’s no evidence.”

“We have a lot of evidence showing both defendants with evidence of drugs and drug trafficking,” said Jean Cloud, one of two Macomb County assistant prosecutors on the case. “Knowingly having fentanyl around the home and children, ultimately children are going to die.”

Faunce said pictures of social media posts and text messages alone are not proof that crimes were committed, but other evidence, albeit circumstantial, should be left for trial.

Floyd and Barksdale remain held in the Macomb County Jail without bond, pending a review of defense requests that bail be reduced for each to $100,000 cash or surety/10 percent plus a tether if either is able to come up with that amount to be released.