Pa. mom guilty after baby dies drinking from fentanyl-laced sippy cup

A Pa. mom whose 17-month-old died after drinking from a fentanyl-laced sippy cup tried to blame her boyfriend, but the quick lethality of the heroin-like drug undercut her defense.

As the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports, the defense team for the mother, Jhenea Pratt, 23, of Pittsburgh, pointed the finger at boyfriend Albert Williams, who did acknowledge he had given the little girl a sippy cup on the morning of her death.

But the jury in Allegheny County wasn’t swayed due to testimony about the lethality of fentanyl.

As the Post-Gazette writes, Pittsburgh Police said, “We also learned that if Charlette had ingested fentanyl during the time frame Williams had her she would have died very shortly after ingesting it.”

But the little girl was still alive and well when her mother gave her a second drink from the fateful sippy cup in the afternoon hours of April 5, 2018.

It proved fatal for Charlette Napper-Talley, age just 17 months.

Prosecutors indicated at trial Pratt’s motive was a desire to smoke pot and simply relax, as the Post-Gazette reports:

The truth is that Ms. Pratt wanted to “sit back, relax and smoke marijuana,” Assistant District Attorney Diana Page told jurors. “That baby was getting in the way of her enjoying her pastime.”

In the end, the jury found Pratt guilty Tuesday of involuntary manslaughter and endangering the welfare of children. Jurors rejected convicting Pratt of first- or third-degree murder.

This, as prosecutors and detectives said the pink sippy cup contained enough fentanyl to “kill two horses.”

Pratt will be sentenced at a later date.