Charge reduced for mother in infant’s death

A Kissimmee woman whose 3-month-old baby died of a fentanyl overdose in 2016 is now charged with child neglect causing great bodily harm — not manslaughter — on which she was initially booked.

The deadly dose of the opioid, about five times the amount that can kill an adult, was found in the blood and stomach of Danuel Ortiz, but police did not arrest his mother until this July — more than a year later.

Caroline Quiles-Sánchez, 26, had moved back to Gurabo, Puerto Rico, a town about 25 miles southeast of San Juan.

Prosecutors thought there was not enough evidence to bring a manslaughter charge against Quiles-Sánchez, said Eryka Washington, a spokes-

woman for the Orange-Osceola State Attorney’s Office.

“Law enforcement has to have probable cause to charge, but prosecutors have a higher level of burden of proof,” Washington said.

Quiles-Sánchez was brought back to Florida in August and booked into the Osceola County Jail on a manslaughter charge, records show.

After prosecutors filed the child neglect charge in September, her bond was reduced to $7,500 and she was allowed to leave the jail as long as she stays in Florida until her trial, according to court records.

Kissimmee police officers came to Quiles-Sánchez’s home on Elmwood Avenue on July 12, 2016, to help an unconscious child, records show.

Danuel’s father, Anuedes Ortiz, had prepared a bottle of formula for the baby and given it to Quiles-Sánchez for a feeding. QuilesSánchez fed the child, then put him down for a nap.

Two hours later the baby was unconscious, records show.

When police arrived Danuel was unresponsive and looked pale, records show. Both his parents were distraught, as was his paternal grandmother, police said. His 1-year-old brother was home, too.

The child was taken to Florida Hospital of Kissimmee, where he died. Danuel’s blood and stomach contents had high levels of fentanyl, a powerful opioid.

“It is unknown how the fentanyl got into Danuel’s system, however, it was determined Danuel would have had to ingest the fentanyl as large amounts were found in his gastric contents,” a DCF official wrote. “There are major concerns for how the fentanyl got into Danuel’s system as Danuel was not mobile due to his age and it is unlikely Danuel would have accidentally ingested this.”

There were 19.6 nanograms of fentanyl per milliliter of Danuel’s blood, an autopsy showed. Three or four nanograms per milliliter can be lethal to adults.

The medical examiner who conducted the baby’s autopsy said he did not have enough evidence to determine whether the death was an accident or a homicide, though the cause of death was a fentanyl overdose.

The most likely source of the drug was in prescribed patches Danuel’s grandmother used for pain, court records show. After Danuel’s death, she noticed a box was missing and asked her son if he took it. He told her he didn’t and said he does not know where she keeps her fentanyl patches, police said.

But how the drug got into Danuel’s body is still unclear: There was no fentanyl in the last baby bottle his mother gave him, nor was there any on his pacifier, records show. He was too young to move around on his own.

More children under the age of 18 in Florida are dying because of fentanyl overdoses, though the numbers remain small: One child died in 2014, and another three died in 2015. That number rose to seven in the first half of 2016.

Quiles-Sánchez’s next court hearing is scheduled for Nov. 8 at 9 a.m. Staff writer Beth Kassab contributed to this story.

“... prosecutors have a higher level of burden of proof.” Orange-Osceola State Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Eryka Washington