A St. Paul couple was charged Thursday in the fentanyl overdose death of their 1½-year-old son on Christmas.
Jeffrey Joseph Weidell, 38, and Jasmine Nicole Ryan, 32, each face one count of second-degree manslaughter for the death of Jackson Joseph Weidell, who was found unconscious and not breathing Dec. 25. He was pronounced dead at Regions Hospital.
Jeffrey Joseph Weidell and Jasmine Nicole Ryan (Courtesy of the Ramsey County sheriff’s office)
The Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Officer on Jan. 16 returned a final autopsy on Jackson that showed he died of fentanyl toxicity, the charges say.
The couple’s other two young children are in the care of Ramsey County Child Protection, the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office said Thursday.
Ryan made a first court appearance on the charge Thursday. Her bail was set at $1 million, and she remains jailed.
Weidell is out on bond in an active theft case, and a warrant has been issued for his arrest, the attorney’s office said.
According to the criminal complaint:
Officers and medics were sent to the couple’s home in the 1000 block of East Fifth Street about 1:30 p.m. Dec. 25 on a call of a child who was not breathing and had been exposed to fentanyl.
Weidell, who was sitting on a couch with the couple’s 4-year-old daughter, said he went to sleep on a living room chair earlier that morning and woke up when Jackson crawled up and lay down next to him. He said he woke up and discovered Jackson’s lips were blue and the boy wasn’t breathing.
Officers saw pieces of crumpled tinfoil with fentanyl residue on the couch next to Weidell and his daughter.
When officers asked Weidell how much fentanyl Jackson had consumed, he said he didn’t know and told them to ask Ryan because he didn’t use the drug.
Mother tried to revive boy
Officers found Ryan in the kitchen performing CPR on Jackson. When asked if Jackson had ingested or choked on anything, Ryan replied, “Fentanyl,” the complaint says. Ryan said she had administered Narcan to the boy.
Ryan told police that Jackson had probably ingested less than a quarter gram of fentanyl that had been melted on a piece of tinfoil. She said Weidell smoked in the living room, kitchen and upstairs in the past.
Officers had everyone leave the house to prevent further fentanyl exposure. They found a knife and several pieces of crumpled tinfoil from Weidell’s pockets before he was taken to a squad.
When an officer picked up the 4-year-old from a chair where Weidell said he and Jackson had slept, a large piece of tinfoil with fentanyl residue was found on the chair.
An officer picked up another child, a 1-month-old boy, from a crib. The infant had a white substance on his forehead and a soiled diaper. An officer changed the baby’s diaper and brought him outside.
Officers found a line of white powder on a shelf with a credit card next to it in the bathroom on the main floor. The bathroom was right off the kitchen where Jackson was receiving medical attention.
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The infant and 4-year-old were taken to the hospital for medical evaluation and placed in the care of child protection.
Ryan told police that she came downstairs after a shower and found Jackson lying on Weidell’s chest in the living room. She went into the kitchen for a bowl of cereal, returned to the living room and found the boy facedown on the couch and Weidell standing and looking at the boy.
She said Weidell told her that Jackson had blue lips, and she told him to call 911. She believed they gave the infant two doses of Narcan.
Ryan said she had smoked fentanyl between 5 to 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve near Maryland and Payne avenues. When asked about the tinfoil in the upstairs bathroom, Ryan said Weidell sometimes smoked in the bathroom.
Ryan, while sitting in the back of a squad car, “seemed out of it and under the influence of something – she did not cry, she showed very little emotion, and she did not ask how (Jackson) was,” the complaint says.
She said she’s struggled with addiction for about four years, and that Weidell introduced her to heroin, and then they began using fentanyl, which they smoke from tinfoil squares.
She said she also has a 15-year-old child who lives with his father, while Ryan also has a 10-year-old who was adopted by her sister. She said she met Weidell in jail when she got her second drunken driving charge.
She said child protection is currently involved because the newborn tested positive for fentanyl when he was born in November 2024. “She said she has been lying to child protection by claiming Weidell wasn’t using drugs and saying everything was good with him,” the complaint states.
Weidell told police in an interview that he fell asleep on a couch between midnight and 2 a.m. and woke up with Jackson asleep with him around 15 minutes before they called 911. Weidell said he thought juice explained the boy’s purple lips, but he checked the boy’s vitals and discovered he wasn’t breathing and called 911.
When asked if both he and Ryan used fentanyl, Weidell said he used to smoke the drug but no longer did. He said Ryan was supposed to be in recovery, but she currently used fentanyl by smoking it from aluminum foil.
Weidell said none of the kids had gotten ahold of fentanyl in the past.
Search of the home
Officers obtained and executed a search warrant at the home and recovered burned tinfoil with residue on it and a straw beneath a body pillow on the living room couch. Straws and burned tinfoil and Weidell’s wallet, which contained a bag of methamphetamine, were found on top of an ottoman in the living room.
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Burned tinfoil and a plate with a line of fentanyl were found in the upper-level bathroom. Burned tinfoil and a baggie with methamphetamine were found in the main-level bathroom. Officers recovered pipes and straws from Ryan’s purse.
In a second interview with police, Weidell immediately asked how Jackson was doing and cried on the floor when told the boy had died.
Weidell denied using drugs when told officers saw tinfoil squares around the house.
Weidell said the infant was born on fentanyl because Ryan used it during her pregnancy, and that the newborn went through withdrawal and had to be on medication. He said Ryan used drugs through every pregnancy.
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