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Parents charged after toddler dies from fentanyl poisoning

CLINTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A Detroit-area couple has been charged in the opioid overdose of their 18-month-old daughter who died on Christmas Day.
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CLINTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A Detroit-area couple has been charged in the opioid overdose of their 18-month-old daughter who died on Christmas Day.

Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith told the Detroit Free Press that an autopsy showed Ava Floyd had ingested up to 15 times the amount of fentanyl authorities had seen in the county’s last 30 overdose deaths.

Smith’s office says 28-year-old Antonio Floyd and 27-year-old Shantanice Barksdale were arraigned Monday and jailed on second-degree murder charges. They face Jan. 29 preliminary examinations.

Smith says the couple was producing fentanyl in their Clinton Township home, and authorities believe the baby drank something containing the drug.

Ava was taken to a grandmother’s home where she stopped breathing.

Attorneys for Floyd and Barksdale on Tuesday declined to comment on the case.