St. Paul parents charged in fentanyl overdose of toddler who died on Christmas Day

The parents of a toddler who overdosed on fentanyl on Christmas Day in St. Paul have been charged with his death.

Police found the 18-month-old boy unresponsive shortly after 1:30 p.m. Dec. 25 at a Dayton’s Bluff home in the 1000 block of E. 5th St. The child, who was later identified by police as Jackson Joseph Weidell, was taken to Regions Hospital where he was pronounced dead. Last week, the Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office determined that the toddler died from fentanyl toxicity.

The boy’s parents, Jasmine Nicole Ryan, 32, and Jeffrey Joseph Weidell, 38, each were charged Wednesday with one count of second-degree manslaughter in connection with Jackson’s death.

According to the charges:

When police arrived at Weidell’s home on Christmas Day, he said he had woken up and discovered that Jackson, who had crawled next to him, had blue lips and wasn’t breathing. Officers found crumpled tinfoil with suspected drug residue on the couch next to Weidell and his toddler daughter.

Police found Ryan in the kitchen performing CPR on Jackson. She said that while she was in the shower, the toddler had ingested fentanyl. She said she had then administered Narcan to him, a medicine used to reverse an opioid overdose.

Police found a knife and several pieces of crumpled tinfoil in Weidell’s pockets, and a large piece of tinfoil with residue in the chair where Weidell said he and Jackson had slept. A month-old baby in a crib had a white substance on his forehead and was wearing a soiled diaper.

Weidell said the last time he remembered Jackson to be up and around was early that morning, though Ryan said he had been playing with toys that afternoon just before she went in the shower. She said she told Weidell to get him from the top of the stairs, which she said Weidell did.

Ryan told police that she saw the toddler lying on Weidell’s chest in the living room; when she came back, she said, Weidell was standing over Jackson who was face down on the couch. When Weidell said his lips were blue, she told him to call 911 and started performing CPR on Jackson.

Ryan admitted to smoking fentanyl on Christmas Eve outside the house. When asked about a line of white powder and a credit card on a shelf near the bathroom, she said Weidell sometimes smoked in the bathroom.

Police said that Ryan seemed under the influence while talking with them and did not appear to be overly concerned about her son’s condition when she was placed in a squad car.

Weidell said that when he found out Jackson wasn’t breathing, he called 911 and said that his son had “got ahold of fentanyl.” Weidell said he had stopped smoking the drug but that Ryan smoked it even though she was supposed to be in recovery. While waiting to speak to police, Ryan said Weidell needed to tell the truth because it was his fentanyl.

Police later recovered burned tinfoil with residue on it and a straw beneath a body pillow on the living room couch, along with burned tinfoil and straws in various other parts of the house that later tested positive for fentanyl. A bag found in Weidell’s wallet tested positive for methamphetamine, and other suspected drugs in the house tested positive for methamphetamine and fentanyl.

When police told Weidell that his son had died, he cried on the floor and said Jackson had gotten into something that shouldn’t have been lying around.

The other two children at the home were taken to the hospital for medical evaluation and put in the care of child protective services. Child protection workers were already involved with the family because the baby had tested positive for fentanyl when he was born in November.

Weidell filed a petition with the court last March requesting an order for protection from Ryan, alleging she had left drug residue around his house where his 3-year-old daughter could reach it. A judge dismissed the request when he failed to show up for a hearing.

Ryan, who has a prior drunken driving conviction, is being held at the Ramsey County jail after she was found last week slumped over in the driver seat of a running car at a gas station. Weidell has nine prior felony convictions and was most recently charged with theft, for which he has an active warrant for his arrest.

Paul Walsh of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.