Mother arrested in child’s drug intoxication death

The mother of a 4-year-old boy who died last year from methadone intoxication has been arrested and charged with manslaughter, Baltimore police said Friday.

Deyonte Davis died Oct. 30 at Johns Hopkins Hospital Pediatrics, according to police.

Though investigators originally suspected no suspicious circumstances, an autopsy revealed the boy died of intoxication from the opioid drug methadone, which can be used to treat pain and addiction.

Baltimore police said they arrested Deyonte’s mother, Latosha Nance, 44, on Tuesday. She has been charged with involuntary manslaughter, neglect of a minor, reckless endangerment and making a false statement to police, according to online court records.

Nance, of the 1700 block of Darley Avenue in East Baltimore, is being held without bond at Central Booking, police said. She does not have an attorney listed online.

The investigation began after officers were dispatched to Johns Hopkins Hospital Pediatrics for a child’s death in the evening of last Oct. 30, police said. Medics had taken Deyonte to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said. The child showed no sign of trauma.

An autopsy by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner found the child died of drug intoxication, prompting homicide detectives to take over the case, police said. The investigators interviewed “numerous” witnesses and consulted the city’s Child Protection Services agency and the State’s Attorney’s Office, according to police.

About a year ago, an Anne Arundel County woman pleaded guilty to manslaughter and child abuse in another case where prosecutors alleged that a young child had ingested a fatal dose of a controlled substance.

Laurie Ann Taylor was sentenced to 10 years in prison in September 2020 after the 45-year-old pleaded guilty to manslaughter and child abuse in relation to her 9-monthold grandson’s overdose death from heroin.

Prosecutors said that Taylor drove her 17-year-old daughter and 9-month-old grandson to Baltimore to buy heroin and the grandson, Baby Niyear, fatally overdosed after he swallowed one of the four capsules of heroin they purchased.

Baltimore police did not say how Deyonte is suspected to have obtained the fatal dose of methadone.