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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A group of lawmakers wants to use state money to help families of LGBT children who have relocated to Minnesota, particularly those from states that restrict gender-affirming treatments for minors.

Last year, Minnesota enacted legislation that blocks other states from taking action against parents in Minnesota who help their children access medicine like puberty-blocking hormones, widely known as gender-affirming care.

The move to establish the state as a “trans refuge” came as many other states, including some of Minnesota’s neighbors, banned the treatments, spurring some families to relocate.

Now, a bill sponsored by Rep. Leigh Finke, DFL-St. Paul, the state’s first transgender woman lawmaker, would give Minneapolis LGBT nonprofit PFund Foundation $1 million to help the newcomers. The funding is for LGBTQ+ families in general, though most of the discussion has centered around transgender people.

Nineteen states have a youth ban for hormone replacements and surgeries aimed at addressing gender dysphoria — where a person’s body’s sex characteristics do not match their gender identity. In some of those states, providing treatment to anyone under 18 could be a felony.

Groups including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association oppose interference with treatments. Conservatives, religious groups and other critics say minors are too young to make informed choices about such treatments.

First hearing

Finke’s bill got its first hearing last week in the House Workforce Development Committee, where Rep. Jamie Becker-Finn, DFL-Roseville, said it would help attract workers to Minnesota and support families who have uprooted their lives to get away from restrictive policies.

“If you are not close friends or family with someone who has a child who is trans, I think a lot of folks don’t realize how dire it is in this country right now,” she said. “I think anything we can do to help support those people and make sure that they have the tools that they need to be successful when they get to Minnesota is critically important.”

It’s not entirely clear how many people have come to Minnesota for access to transgender medicine, or for other LGBT protections the state enacted last year like a ban on therapy to change the sexual orientation or gender identity for minors.

But PFund executive director Aaron Zimmerman said his group has identified around 150 individuals and families who have moved to Minnesota since the refuge bill was passed last year, and off that number, 89% have relocated for better access to gender-affirming care.

“We’ve seen firsthand that people from all across the country are moving here to seek safety refuge and a better life for themselves and their children,” he told the House Workforce Development Committee.

Before the “trans refuge” bill was enacted last year, providers of transgender medicine already had long queues of patients, said Dr. Angela Kade Goepferd, director of Gender Health at Children’s Minnesota, a frequent testifier on transgender issues at the Capitol.

What would $1 million pay for?

If the state gives $1 million to PFund, the nonprofit would use the money to help support the state’s “gender-affirming care workforce” by giving money to health care facilities that help transgender patients.

PFund expects funds to allow the hiring of seven specialists who could help provide services like medication and counseling to about 250 patients each month over the next two years. Advocates say that could attract more gender health specialists to Minnesota.

Past funding for health care, the bill also would help newcomers get established in the workforce, Zimmerman said.

“Funds from this bill will be used to provide wrap-around services that help individuals get job ready, create pathways out of poverty and address the many disparities that prevent LGBTQ+ people from achieving economic security,” said Zimmerman, who noted PFund is well positioned to do the work as it is an established nonprofit that has monitored new arrivals.

GOP reaction

House Republicans raised questions about the bill’s appropriation of $1 million in state money for a narrow group of people when the state has broader public health and workforce needs. Rep. Dave Baker, R-Willmar, called it “quite an interesting bill” and said he had a hard time understanding why it was before the Workforce Development Committee when it pertained to medical support.

He also noted that last year’s “trans refuge” bill is still a new policy, the implications of which are yet to be fully seen by the state.

“A million dollars is a lot of money,” said Baker. “The ink isn’t even dry off last year’s bill to do a lot of things that Minnesotans are still kind of getting their head around.”

The money will go far for the more than 100 families and individuals who have moved to the state, argued Finke, who said the bill directly pertains to the workforce as it addresses preparing newcomers for employment in a new state.

What’s next?

If the Minnesota Legislature approves $1 million for PFund to help LGBT newcomers, it’ll likely happen as part of a broader workforce bill expected to pass later this spring.

The House Workforce Development Committee last week moved to hold the bill over for inclusion in a broader omnibus bill — typical of how Minnesota passes a lot of its legislation.

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The man wore blue jeans and work boots, worked as a welder, drove a 2010 Chevy Silverado pickup truck, lived modestly in a small house in northeast Minneapolis and harbored an astonishing secret.

No one realized he was the millionaire next door, with an estate worth $1.7 million.

When Dean S. Phillips — who never married and had no children  — died at 68 on or about April 20, 2021, he left the bulk of his money to Gillette Children’s in St. Paul.

Why Gillette?

It appears that Phillips, a master welder who worked for 26 years at Caterpillar Paving Projects in Brooklyn Park until his retirement in 2017, had a co-worker whose child had been treated at Gillette, said Leona Fitzmaurice, Phillips’ older sister. “They were very appreciative of the treatment.”

Phillips named Gillette Children’s Foundation as the beneficiary of his 401(K) account — an account that was worth more than $1 million at the time of his death, said Fitzmaurice, who lives in Birmingham, Ala.

Phillips apparently reached out to Gillette officials in 2016 and asked for the foundation’s tax identification number, she said.

“They had a record that he had contacted them and had asked what was necessary to name Gillette as a beneficiary,” she said. “We found a note (after he died) from Gillette that thanked him for his inquiry.”

Gillette officials were stunned to learn the news, said Stephen Bariteau, the hospital’s executive vice president and chief philanthropy officer.

“Isn’t it a wonderful and crazy story? That some co-worker said something about Gillette, and Dean either was so moved or was in the right place at the right time … and decided to be wonderfully generous to a place that didn’t touch him personally,” Bariteau said.

Grew up near Grand Rapids

Phillips grew up on 310 acres of “mostly wild land” in Splithand Township, about 18 miles south of Grand Rapids. His parents, Clair and Norma, ran a wildflower and wild plants nursery called Orchid Gardens, which primarily operated as a mail-order business, Fitzmaurice said.

The couple had four children: Leona, Carl, Jim and Dean.

The four children of Clair and Norma Phillips of Splithand Township, Minnesota: Leona and Carl at left, and Jim and Dean at right. Dean, the youngest, is lower right. (Courtesy of Leona Fitzmaurice)

Dean was an incredible artist who, even as a young child, loved creating sculptures and drawing. “He had a talent way beyond his years,” his sister said. “In everything he did, he was very particular. He could do almost anything with his hands. He started out in clay, moved to metal and then explored other things as well. He loved woodworking.”

Phillips loved the outdoors, excelled in school, and spent his free time designing and building cars, according to Fitzmaurice. “He would buy these Volkswagen Bugs that were pretty much on their last leg, and he’d strip them all the way down and rebuild them,” she said.

He attended Itasca Junior College in Grand Rapids, where he developed an aptitude for welding, a skill that he practiced first in the shipyards of Duluth and Superior, Wis., and then later in several small companies in the Twin Cities, she said.

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Phillips joined Caterpillar Paving Products in 1991 where he worked as a master welder and member of a team that constructed custom-designed equipment, she said.

Phillips restored his house in Northeast Minneapolis, which was built in 1910.

His other main hobby: restoring vintage Harley-Davidson motorcycles. His fully restored 1947 Harley-Davidson Knucklehead won awards during his lifetime; it’s now at Vanilla Cycles in Carrington, N.D., she said.

“He liked movies that were really challenging – movies that really made you think,” she said. “He typically did not read fiction or novels. He had bookshelves full of art books, woodworking books, motorcycle books. He loved Georgia O’Keefe; he thought she was absolutely fantastic.”

Lived frugally, died alone

Fitzmaurice said she and her siblings had no idea their brother “was quietly accumulating such a degree of wealth.”

“He lived very frugally and directed that most of his Caterpillar pension be paid into his 401(k) account,” she said.

Neighbors of Phillips called police after noticing that there had not been any movement at his house for several days in April 2021. Police conducted a welfare check and found him in his upstairs bedroom, she said.

Phillips suffered from depression and chronic pain caused by the degeneration of discs in the lumbar region of his spine. They determined he died of suicide.

“We deeply grieve Dean’s death, and we believe that such a suicide could have been prevented,” family members wrote in his obituary. “Our society still stigmatizes mental illness. While Dean might still have accomplished his goal of ending his life prematurely, it is possible that he would be alive today had his illness been identified and treated.”

Phillips’ $962,000 bequest to Gillette is being used to help provide 12 additional exam rooms and one large treatment room to increase the hospital’s capacity to provide care to more patients at the St. Paul campus, Bariteau said.

It’s part of a $7 million expansion project that also will provide “three research spaces to enhance Gillette’s patient- and family-informed research programs,” he said.

Construction started last month and is expected to be completed in October.

A plaque in Phillips’ honor will be erected in the expansion, he said.

“I’ve been doing this a long time now, and it is always amazing to me the surprise and unknown gifts that come in,” Bariteau said. “You never know the full impact of your organization. Despite how hard we try or want to know, there are people who are just going to do wonderful things anonymously or secretly, and this is just one of those examples where Dean was doing good. He wasn’t looking for praise or glory or anything about it, but he knew he needed to do something good, and he happened to choose our organization. It’s just amazing.

“The generous spirit of individuals is alive and well, and it comes through this way. There is something special, really, about the quiet givers.”

Suicide prevention information

If you need help: If you are in crisis, call 988 or text “Hello” to 741-741 for free, 24/7 support from the Crisis Text Line. Or, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
If you want to help: Five steps to help others as well as yourself at Take5tosavelives.org.
Please stay: Read survivor stories at Livethroughthis.org: “Our stories can save lives. You are not alone. Please stay.”
Local resources: More local resources at Suicide Awareness Voices of Education (SAVE) at Save.org.

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