Two-year-old girl dies after getting into her parents’ Oxycodone stash: Police

The toddler’s parents are facing felony murder charges

A Georgia toddler is dead and her parents face murder charges after she allegedly ingested a fatal dose of Oxycodone while in their care.

According to an arrest report obtaine by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Aubree Hendrix, 2, reportedly consumed the opioid sometime on March 7 or 8 at her father’s Stone Mountain home. The two-year-old is said to have gone into cardiac arrest and died sometime later.

Last week, DeKalb deputies issued arrest warrants for the girl’s parents, Jalen Hendrix, 22, and Jazea Lyles, 20. In addition to second-degree murder charges, police spokeswoman Cynthia Baugh Williams told the Stone Mountain Patch that the pair were charged with second-degree cruelty to a child.

In Georgia, someone doesn’t have to intend to kill to be hit with felony murder charges, The Journal-Constitution noted.

A highly addictive drug, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warns that Oxycodone can cause respiratory depression and severe hypotension in certain individuals. In 2015 alone, opioids were associated with 33,091 deaths—more than 63 percent of all drug-related fatalities—in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The DeKalb Sheriff’s Fugitive Unit arrested the girl’s father at a business in Lithonia and the mother at a Norcross home without incident on Friday, according to a press release.

Authorities have yet to disclose exactly how Aubree got access to the lethal drug or specifics on the circumstances of her death.

Jalen and Lyes remain in DeKalb County Jail without bond on Monday.

 

[Featured Image: DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office/GoFundMe/DeKalb County Jail]