Two months after a San Francisco toddler’s fatal fentanyl overdose, the child’s parents have been charged with murder.
It is the first murder charge by the San Francisco district attorney’s office in connection with a fentanyl death.
The child’s death was discovered after a 911 call on Feb. 12 reported that a 2-year-old had stopped breathing in a home in the city’s Mission Dolores neighborhood. When emergency workers arrived, they found evidence that the girl had been dead for several hours, the district attorney’s office said.
Court documents cited by the district attorney reported that police found a white powder and drug paraphernalia in the home, and the child’s mother — Michelle Price, 38 — seemed to be under the influence of a drug. Steve Ramirez, 43, identified as Price’s boyfriend, was stopped by officers as he allegedly attempted to flee on a bicycle.
The child’s cause of death was determined to be fentanyl toxicity, and the medical examiner also found the opioid reversal medicine Narcan (naloxone) in the bloodstream, the district attorney’s office said.
Fentanyl and methamphetamine were allegedly present in the blood of both adults.
Price and Ramirez were charged with second-degree murder, willful harm or injury resulting in a child’s death, felony child endangerment and possession of fentanyl and drug paraphernalia. Ramirez is also charged with resisting, obstructing and delaying a peace officer.
Both adults were released from custody in February over the prosecution’s objection. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Thursday, April 16.