BRIGHTON, Colo. — The toddler who police say died of fentanyl poisoning was in her parents' bedroom for nearly an hour while her parents smoked fentanyl and crack cocaine, according to the arrest affidavit in the case.
It happened overnight between Jan. 1 and 2, the affidavit says. According to police, 30-year-old Nicole Casias was smoking fentanyl with 31-year-old Alonzo Montoya in the bedroom of the apartment they shared with their 23-month-old daughter on South 7th Avenue in Brighton.
At one point, according to the arrest affidavit, a friend of theirs named Nico started smoking fentanyl in their bedroom. Casias told her daughter "get out of that," though the affidavit does not specify what she was referring to.
Police say Casias then picked up the toddler from the floor close to where they kept the narcotics safe under their bed, and not far from where Nico was smoking fentanyl.
According to police, Casias took her daughter out of the bedroom and put her in her crib. The affidavit says she was left unattended for nearly 14 hours and that surveillance video from inside the apartment records the young girl crying loudly and in pain multiple times throughout the night.
Finally, around 2:00 in the afternoon on Jan. 2, police say, Casias took her daughter out of the crib and ran screaming into her bedroom. But it was too late. The little girl had already died.
An autopsy said both methamphetamine and fentanyl were found in her blood -- 10 times the amount of fentanyl, according to the coroner, necessary to kill an intolerant adult user.
Casias and Montoya are both charged with child abuse resulting in death and distribution of a controlled substance.
They were in court Monday to be advised of the charges against them.
If convicted, they could both face up to 48 years in prison.
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