‘We did not get here overnight’: suspect in toddler’s drug OD in court | News

IRONTON Two-year-old Bentley Deer was brought to King’s Daughters Medical Center hospital in Ashland late on the night of Jan. 27.

The boy was in a full-blown medical crisis, and paramedics reported the child had gone into cardiac arrest at his home. First responders, nurses and doctors did everything they could to try to save the boy, but they could not. The child, just 30 months old, was pronounced dead sometime after 11 p.m.

The suspected cause was a fatal overdose believed to be caused by fentanyl, morphine and heroin.

“The preliminary autopsy did not show a cause of death and the toxicology was sent off,” said Boyd County Coroner Mark Hammond. “When it came back it is when we notified Ironton Police Department of our findings…What was found in his blood was fentanyl, morphine and heroin.”

The death is believed to be the youngest drug overdose from illicit drugs in Boyd County history. Hammond has been with the coroner’s office since 2007 and was a paramedic in Boyd County prior to that dating back to the early 1990s.

“I cannot remember anyone as young as this,” Hammond said regarding the nature of the child’s death. “This is our youngest overdose ever by any means it is a shame.”

Exactly how the child ingested the drugs has not been disclosed by authorities, but on Monday, authorities in Lawrence County, Ohio, formally charged David E. Large, who police said was the boy’s caregiver.

Large appeared in court on two charges of endangering children.

Large, 36, is charged with two felony counts, one stemming from the child’s death. The second charge was filed because authorities said another child was also in the Ironton apartment the alleged offense happened, according to court officials.

Municipal Court Judge Kevin Waldo set Large’s bond at $100,000 cash or surety. Large was returned to the Lawrence County Jail, where he has been held since his arrest.

Waldo scheduled a preliminary hearing for 9 a.m. Thursday.

A grand jury will meet Feb. 25 and may add additional charges and defendants, assistant prosecutor Mike Gleichauf said.

If Large is convicted, he could get up to five years in prison for each count. Additional charges, if any, could add additional time. He also would face fines. The judge also appointed a defense attorney for Large.

It was not clear whether authorities had received any prior complaints about the living conditions of the children in question. An inquiry with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services about Deer’s case was referred to the office of Lawrence County Job and Family Services. The director of that agency did not return a phone call seeking comment on Monday.

Nonetheless, the fatal overdose of a 2-year-old boy is just the latest drug-related fatality in a region of the nation plagued by the American opioid epidemic. Roughly 20 miles away from Ironton is Huntington, which was the subject of the documentary film ‘Heroin(e)’, which chronicled Huntington’s ongoing struggle with a drug overdose rate 10 times the national average.

The opioid epidemic — previously anchored by prescription pills but which has since morphed into a problem centered on heroin, fentanyl and other illicit substances — knows no boundaries in the Tri-State region of Appalachia. Cities up and down the Ohio River continue to try to find new ways to combat the epidemic.

In Boyd County, where Deer passed away, the youngest overdose in 2018 was 20 and the youngest in 2017 was 24, according to statistics provided by Hammond.

Hammond’s office investigated 40 deaths related to drug overdoses in 2018 and five of those were determined to be related to chronic drug abuse.

On average, about one drug-related death occurs in Boyd County every nine days.

“What we’ve been seeing is a lot of heroin starting to come back and in the last year we saw a ton of meth, and fentanyl mixed with everything,” Hammond said.

“I’ve said for a long time now that what we are seeing now — we did not get here overnight,” the coroner said. “It has happened over years and years, with people getting involved in drugs through prescriptions, and a younger generation taught, thinking that certain drugs are somehow okay.”