Father accused of allowing baby to ingest deadly fentanyl dose pleads not guilty
A 32-year-old man accused of allowing his infant daughter to ingest fentanyl, killing the baby, pleaded not guilty today to child abuse and other charges.
Donald Charles Wallace of Lake Mathews was arrested last week following a Riverside County Sheriff's Department investigation that began almost three months earlier.
Along with the abuse count, Wallace is charged with a sentence-enhancing allegation of inflicting corporal injury to a minor resulting in death.
He was arraigned before Superior Court Judge O.G. Magno, who scheduled a felony settlement conference for March 14 at the Riverside Hall of Justice and ordered the defendant to remain held in lieu of $75,000 bail at the Robert Presley Jail.
According to sheriff's Sgt. Ryan Marcuse, in the predawn hours of last Dec. 2, deputies and paramedics were sent to Wallace's residence in the 17000 block of Crown Creek Circle, near Lakepointe Drive, to investigate reports of an infant in distress.
The 2-month-old girl, whose name was not released, was pronounced dead at the scene, Marcuse said.
He said that drugs were suspected, but there were no immediate grounds to make an arrest. Over the ensuing months, detectives from the department's Overdose Death Investigations & Narcotics Unit developed leads pointing to Wallace as the alleged buyer of the fentanyl that the baby ingested, according to the sergeant.
"It was determined the 2-month-old juvenile was the victim of fentanyl poisoning,'' Marcuse said.
On Feb. 24, Wallace was taken into custody without incident at his home, and charges were filed the following day.
Wallace has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.
Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, is manufactured in China and smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border. The drug is known to be 80-100 times more potent than morphine and is a popular additive, seamlessly mixed into any number of narcotics and pharmaceuticals, according to public safety officials.
Sheriff Chad Bianco said there were about 500 fentanyl-induced deaths countywide last year, which represents a 250-fold increase from 2016, when only two such fatalities were documented.
Watch: RivCo leaders discuss the impact of fentanyl, push for legislation to charge dealers with murder
Check Out: Fentanyl’s heartbreaking impact and how Riverside County is tackling the deadly drug
Late last year, Riverside County District Attorney Hestrin told News Channel 3 that fentanyl deaths are up by more than 800% in the last five years in the county.
Recently, a man who sold his daughter the fentanyl-laced pill was arrested and faces federal charges.
In November, the parents of a 15-month-old who died of a fentanyl overdose were arrested on suspicion of murder.
