OCALA, Fla. — Sheriff’s deputies arrested the parents of a 2-year-old North Florida girl who died of a fentanyl overdose earlier this year.
The child’s parents, 30-year-old Joseph Tierney and Jalynn Davis, remained in the Marion County Jail on Wednesday each with an aggravated manslaughter charge.
Marion County Sheriff’s deputies were called to the couple’s home on June 13 and found the child unresponsive. She was pronounced dead a short time later at a hospital.
Her 35-year-old parents told investigators they put her to bed and found her lifeless about 30 minutes later.
The Marion County medical examiner later determined the child died of fentanyl toxicity. Her stomach contents tested positive for the opioid.
Deputies say the child's mother was selling fentanyl, and her father was an active user, according to a news release from the sheriff's office.
Detectives were able to find probable cause for arrest during the investigation based upon "[the parents] having brought [the child] to a known drug location and by failing to protect her from the fentanyl present at the location."
At the time of Tierney's arrest, he was already in the Marion County Jail for charges of tampering with a witness in a capital felony proceeding and aggravated assault, deputies say. He is being held on no bond.
Davis is also being held on no bond at the Lake County Jail for other offenses committed in Lake County, including murder, which is connected to her unlawful distribution of the drug, possession of fentanyl, possession of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia, the sheriff's office reports.
She will be served with a new warrant after she returns to Marion County.
“For years, law enforcement has been battling the opioid epidemic here in Marion County, throughout the United States, and at our country’s borders," Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods said in a statement. "The senseless death of this innocent child is the ultimate tragedy, and it should serve as a reminder of why we must continue our fight to keep opiates out of our communities."