Upper Darby mom gets jail for drug death of baby
MEDIA COURTHOUSE » An Upper Darby woman was sentenced to 3½ to 9 years in a state prison Wednesday after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter for the death of her 10-month-old daughter in 2018.
Lauren Semanyk, 37, of the 5000 block of Westley Drive in the Westbrook Park section of Upper Darby, also pleaded guilty before Common Pleas Court Judge James Bradley to conspiracy to involuntary manslaughter and endangering the welfare of children for the death of Angelina Milano on April 16, 2018, after she ingested a fatal dose of the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl.
The negotiated guilty plea was worked out by assistant district attorneys Kristen Kemp and Laurie Moore, and defense counsel Jordan Zeitz.
The girl’s father, Joseph Milano, 34, of the same address, previously pleaded to the same charges in April and was sentenced to five to 10 years in prison.
Semanyk and Milano were charged after detectives determined the girl’s true cause of death and found the couple waited hours before calling 911 for help.
According to the affidavit of probable cause written by Upper Darby Detective William Sminkey, police were called to the Westley Drive residence at 1:17 a.m. for a report of a 10-month-old baby in cardiac arrest.
Officer William Sides responded and found Milano on the sidewalk, holding the baby in his arms and shouting that she was not breathing. Milano and Sides went into the home and began to perform CPR in the living room.
“At this time, Sides noticed that Angelina had no pulse, was not breathing, and her skin was gray and pale,” according to the affidavit.
Milano initially said the child drowned in the bathtub during a bath, but her skin and diaper were dry, the affidavit says.
Paramedics soon arrived on scene and rushed Angelina to Delaware
County Memorial Hospital for treatment. Semanyk told Sides it “was possible” the child had ingested heroin after he asked. That information was relayed to hospital staff and Narcan was administered at the emergency room, but Angelina was pronounced dead at 2:02 a.m.
Detectives Sminkey and Thomas Thompson interviewed Milano and Semanyk at police headquarters later that day. Milano said he saw the baby in her bedroom with a straw in her mouth that had an “off-white powdery residue” on it.
He said he then placed Angelina in the bathtub and left the bathroom for three minutes. When he returned, he said Angelina was on her back with water rolling over her face and her eyes were glazed. He told detectives that he splashed cold
water on the child to wake her and called Semanyk before beginning CPR on the girl.
Semanyk said in her initial interview with police that she was working at ManorCare in Yeadon when Milano called her at about 9 p.m. and asked her to come home.
When she arrived, Semanyk said she found Milano giving the baby CPR. Semanyk took over and Angelina eventually coughed up some water. The child seemed “fine” after that and they sat with the baby to monitor her. Semanyk reported that there was no water in the tub when she got home.
In an interview with Captain David Madonna and Detective Leo Henshaw the following day, Semanyk said she recalled Milano saying he didn’t know if the baby ingested water or something else.
She did a finger sweep of the baby’s mouth, which revealed nothing, but Milano said Angelina may have ingested a piece of paper used to package heroin.
Semanyk added that Milano called 911 around 11:45 p.m., but then immediately hung up. When 911 called back, he told the operator that everything was OK. Milano finally called back for an ambulance at 1:17 a.m.
An autopsy conducted by Medical Examiner Dr. Bennett Preston ruled the child’s death a homicide due to “synthetic fentanyl intoxication and complications thereof.” No water was not found in the baby’s lungs.
Milano was interviewed again by Sminkey and Thompson on Sept. 26, after that report was released. Milano changed his story at that point, according to the affidavit, saying that he found the child in the bathroom looking groggy with a piece of blue paper in her mouth.
Milano said he put a wet cloth over her forehead and ran cold water over her head from the bathtub faucet, then called Semanyk, who returned home from work. Milano told detectives that Semanyk said the baby was fine and the couple argued about whether to take her to a hospital. That was when Milano said he called 911 the first time and hung-up after Semanyk said the child was fine.
A decision was made to call police around 1 a.m. after Angelina had “taken a turn for the worst,” according to police.
Semanyk told detectives Sept. 27 that she started performing CPR on the child after coming home from work and that Angelina began to open her eyes. She directed Milano to call 911, she said, but he hung up.
The affidavit notes that when Semanyk arrived for her first interview, she was seen throwing a syringe out of her car, which was later collected as evidence. A search of her car that day uncovered an Altoid’s tin containing a cut straw used to inhale narcotics.
Bradley lamented the child’s passing at Milano’s sentencing in April, saying the girl might have grown up to be a poet laureate, Olympic athlete, physician, teacher, or mother.
“We’re never going to know what the victim Angelina … could have accomplished during her lifetime,” he previously said. “All we can say in this particular case is that it’s an unspeakable tragedy, a tragedy that could have been and should have been avoided.”
Semanyk was given credit for time served back to Dec. 6, 2018. In addition to prison time, she cannot have any unsupervised contact with minors, including her own children, and Milano cannot be the supervisor. Semanyk must also follow the requirements of Children and Youth Services, continue drug treatment and submit to random drug screens, and testify truthfully in any upcoming proceedings, under the plea.
“All we can say in this particular case is that it’s an unspeakable tragedy, a tragedy that could have been and should have been avoided.”
— Common Pleas Court Judge James Bradley