A Long Beach mother was sentenced to 12 years in state prison for her 11-month-old daughter’s methadone ingestion death, a prosecutor said Tuesday.
Charissa Ranee Bailey — who at the time was a drug addict staying in a motel — received a week’s supply of methadone from a clinic on April 24, 2013, and was told to keep the drug in a locked container away from children, according to Deputy District Attorney Troy Davis.
Her 11-month-old daughter was found dead a day later from a methadone overdose, the prosecutor said.
Bailey had given the girl methadone to soothe her, according to testimony presented at a hearing in which she was ordered to stand trial.
Authorities were dispatched to a motel in the 600 block of West Pacific Coast Highway on a report of a baby in full cardiac arrest. The child was taken to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
The Los Angeles County coroner’s office determined after an 11-month investigation that the girl died from methadone ingestion. The coroner’s office ruled out Sudden Infant Death Syndrome as the cause of the baby’s death.
Bailey, now 31, was sentenced immediately after pleading no contest Monday to one felony count of willful cruelty to a child likely to produce great bodily injury, and admitting an allegation that she personally inflicted great bodily injury on a child under the age of 5.
Bailey — who has remained jailed since her arrest — was initially charged with murder for the baby’s death.
[symple_googlemap title=”600 block of West Pacific Coast ” location=”600 block of West Pacific Coast ” height=”300″ zoom=”15″]
–City News Service