MINNEAPOLIS — A St. Louis Park couple was charged for the fentanyl poisoning of their 1-year-old baby boy earlier this month.
Deja Harper, 28, and her partner, Waymon Murphy, 25, appeared in Hennepin County Court Monday and were each charged with one count of child endangerment and one count of child neglect.
According to the complaint, St. Louis Park police officers were called to the apartment of Harper and Murphy on Oct. 3 for an unresponsive baby. When officers arrived, Harper told officers the baby ingested aspirin while she, Murphy and the baby were lying in bed.
Harper added that Murphy had taken some aspirin earlier for a headache and must have forgotten to put the bottle away, which is how they believe the baby got the pill.
Harper and Murphy said they saw the pull inside the baby's mouth and Murphy removed it.
When paramedics arrived, the baby was unresponsive and struggling to breath. When he was taken to the hospital, doctors intubated the baby. Court documents say that doctors met with Harper and Murphy because the baby's condition was inconsistent with ingestion of a single pill of aspirin.
After confronting Harper and Murphy, both maintained their original statement that the baby had ingested a single pill of aspirin. A toxicology test later revealed it was fentanyl.
A search warrant of the couple's home found fentanyl pills in a pair of men's shoes in the closet. Both Harper and Murphy took urinalysis after the baby was admitted to the hospital and Murphy tested positive for fentanyl. Harper's sample couldn't be analyzed because it had been tampered with and diluted, according to the complaint.
The baby spent six days in the hospital as a result of opiate overdose.
Harper and Murphy have a history with child protection, including an incident back in 2016 when the two were in a vehicle with their baby and in possession of a firearm and narcotics, which included Percicet that the couple claimed ownership of.
Murphy is scheduled to be back in court on Nov. 12 and Harper is set to appear on Nov. 15.
