Minnesota parents are facing charges related to the December 2023 fentanyl overdose death of their 1-year-old baby girl.
St. Paul Police responded to a call of a child not breathing on Dec. 1, 2023, KROC News reportsaid a criminal complaint filed this week in Ramsey County Court.
“Where’s the Narcan?” a voice said in the background of the 911 call, according to the complaint.
According to reports, when police arrived at the home, doctors were trying to save the baby, who appeared to have swallowed something. The baby girl’s father and her grandmother were home at the time, but she said she did not know what the baby ingested.
The baby’s mother, Tessa Jean Borlicki, 20, fled the home on foot before officers arrived on the scene, according to the complaint. She was eventually located and taken into custody a short time later, the report said.
The baby was taken to a hospital and declared brain dead on December 5, the report said.
Officers executed two search warrants at the home and found 0.2 grams of suspected methamphetamine and one bag of suspected other drugs. The report said pieces of burnt aluminum foil, drug paraphernalia, drug residue and even some dog feces were found on the floor of the home.
During the investigation, police discovered that Borlicki had been using fentanyl at the hospital during labor, which caused her baby to be placed on hold during delivery, according to the complaint.
An autopsy conducted by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office determined that the girl died of acute fentanyl intoxication. The medical examiner found fentanyl and non-fentanyl drugs in the infant’s system and a folded piece of aluminum foil in her colon, according to the complaint.
Volicki is charged with two counts of second-degree manslaughter. The child’s father, 36-year-old Derrick Marshawn Harrison, has been charged with felony child endangerment, the report said.
“Although he was not home at the time of the overdose, he admitted that he knew about Borlicki’s drug use and that he could have left the child in a safer place,” according to the complaint. I approved it.”
Borlicki is being held on $150,000 bail and Harris is being held on $50,000 bail, according to reports.
