A Maplewood mother was sentenced to four years of probation Wednesday for the 2020 fentanyl overdose death of her 3-year-old son at a West St. Paul apartment, where authorities say she used the drug and where it was sold.
Queenetta Jeanette McDaniel, 36, pleaded guilty last year to second-degree manslaughter in connection with the death of Amier Isaac McDaniel on Dec. 7, 2020. She was charged in April 2022.
Queenetta Jeanette McDaniel (Courtesy of Dakota County Sheriff’s Office)
McDaniel entered a straight plea, meaning there was no agreement between the defense and the prosecution on the terms of her sentence. She faced up to 10 years in prison; prosecutors asked for 41 months.
Dakota County District Judge David Knutson stayed a four-year prison term for four years, during which McDaniel will be on probation. Besides not consuming illegal drugs, she must follow mental health recommendations and conditions of Ramsey County Social Services.
Knutson gave several reasons for his departure from state guidelines, including that McDaniel is amenable to chemical dependency treatment and has shown remorse.
County Attorney Kathy Keena said in a statement that she is disappointed with the judge’s decision, “given the facts of this case. Such a tragic and senseless death due to the negligence of Ms. McDaniel. My sincere condolences to Amier’s family and loved ones.”
Died at Children’s Hospital
West St. Paul police and medical responders were called to the apartment around 7:45 a.m. on a report that a 3-year-old child was not breathing.
McDaniel told police that she had been asleep with her son on the couch. She said she woke up to use the bathroom and, when she returned to the couch, realized that he was not breathing and appeared to have vomited, according to the criminal complaint.
McDaniel told police the boy had been conscious and apparently well at approximately 11 p.m. the previous night before going to sleep.
The boy was transported to Children’s Hospital by ambulance, where a short time later he was pronounced dead at age 3 years and eight months.
Police suspected McDaniel was under the influence of drugs because of her behavior at the scene and at the hospital, the complaint says. Several hours later, investigators collected a sample of McDaniel’s blood, and fentanyl and a metabolite of fentanyl were found during a toxicology analysis.
Investigators were told that the apartment belonged to McDaniel’s friend and that she and her son had been staying there the previous two days. Investigators then learned from drug task force officers that a resident of the apartment was suspected of selling illegal drugs, including fentanyl, out of the home, the complaint alleges.
The Ramsey County medical examiner’s office ruled the boy died of a fentanyl overdose. The complaint does not say how the boy ingested the drug.
Witnesses told investigators that McDaniel was a heavy and habitual user of illicit drugs, including fentanyl, at the time of her son’s death, the complaint says. “(McDaniel) had reportedly been using drugs while she and the (boy) had been staying at the apartment in West St. Paul, including smoking fentanyl with at least one witness,” the complaint says.
Police searched the apartment and recovered numerous pieces of drug paraphernalia in a bedroom and bathroom.
Example for others
In arguing for the departure, defense attorney Luke Rezac noted how McDaniel has no prior criminal history and has been sober for nearly two years.
“Although she has struggled heavily with sobriety, poverty and single motherhood, she has managed to keep a completely clean record with no criminal convictions,” he said in a March 6 court document.
Knutson gave McDaniel the “incredible opportunity” to be furloughed to treatment from the jail two summers ago, Rezac said. She graduated from long-term inpatient treatment and into outpatient treatment. She found work and has been a peer recovery specialist through Twin Cities Recovery Project since August.
The boy’s death is a “near impossible burden” that she will “have to bear for eternity,” Rezac said.
“Yet McDaniel is still trying to pick up the pieces and move forward as a shining yet terribly serious example for others who struggle with chemical dependency,” he said.
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