Parents charged in baby’s drug death

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Two parents have been charged after their three-month-old child died of fentanyl and methamphetamine poisoning more than two years ago.

Police and fire paramedic crews rushed to a home in the Westdale neighbourhood on Feb. 2, 2022, after reports of an unresponsive baby girl. The child was taken to hospital and pronounced dead days later.

Winnipeg Police Service child-abuse investigators began a ‘lengthy and very exhaustive’ probe into Layla Mattern Muise’s death shortly thereafter.

Autopsy and toxicology reports later determined Layla’s death resulted from exposure to fentanyl and methamphetamine, police said Wednesday. Detectives consulted with Crown attorneys, who authorized charges against the parents.

“It’s brutal,” WPS spokesman Const. Jason Michalyshen said. “When it’s a situation that could so easily be prevented, and to lose such a young life — I can’t put it into words how tragic it is, how upsetting it is, for investigators, for us … to relay this information to the public. It’s challenging, it really is hard.”

Michalyshen said autopsies and toxicology reports take a significant amount of time to complete, with the latest medical report coming in September. Detectives conducted numerous interviews with the parents and it took legwork to identify and interview other witnesses, Michalyshen said.

Christopher Joseph Mattern, 39, and Alison Kimberly Muise, 40, were arrested Tuesday and charged with failing to provide the necessaries of life.

Michalyshen said those charges were laid — as opposed to criminal negligence causing death, for example — based on what detectives were able to determine about the circumstances.

Police discovered multiple different people may have been consuming illicit substances at the home on Westgrove Way.

“The parents’ role — any parent’s role — is to protect the child at all times, at all costs,” Michalyshen said. He implored parents and caregivers who aren’t in a position to care for their children to seek help and support.

“The methamphetamine or the fentanyl found in the child’s system could have been … from anyone, not necessarily the parents, but the parents’ role is to ensure their child is safe at all times, and that’s where this charge comes into play.”

Muise has no past criminal convictions in the province, court records show. She’s next due in court on April 3.

Mattern was convicted last October of two separate assaults — one committed in March 2023 and the other in June 2023 — and sentenced to time served, records show. He was also convicted of two court order breaches.

In May 2017, he was convicted of uttering threats and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose. He was given a two-year suspended sentence and supervised probation.

Mattern was due in bail court Wednesday on the new charge, but the outcome of the hearing was not immediately clear based on court records.

The three-month-old’s death marks the second time recently that city police have charged caregivers in the drug poisonings of their children.

On Feb. 5, Winnipeg police said the parents of a one-year-old girl had been charged with manslaughter after she ingested fentanyl. They waited hours before calling for help, police said.

Hanna Boulette ingested a large amount of the drug on March 3, 2023, and died from fentanyl poisoning, police said last month. Police said her father called 911 to report Hanna had been found unresponsive at their Stella Avenue home in the North End.

Garry Daniel Adrian Bruce, 38, and Sabrina Faye Boulette, 37, have been charged in the girl’s death.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca