St. Paul mother pleads not guilty to charges after 7-year-old dies from fentanyl overdose
UPDATE: On Jan. 12, 2024, Shauntaija Jannell Travis entered an amended guilty plea to a charge of second-degree manslaughter in this case. Read the full story here.
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- A 27-year-old St. Paul woman has pleaded not guilty to felony charges after her 7-year-old daughter died of a fentanyl overdose earlier this year.
According to Ramsey County court documents, Shauntaija Jannell Travis faces two counts of second-degree manslaughter in connection to the March 31 death. She pleaded not guilty to those charges in court on Monday.
The complaint says emergency responders were dispatched to a residence on the 800 block of Sherburne Avenue around 6:40 a.m. on the report of a death. When they arrived, a 7-year-old girl was located and pronounced dead inside in the living room.
The medical examiner later determined the girl's cause of death as fentanyl toxicity and the manner of death as an accident.
After obtaining a search warrant, officers found a purse in Travis' bedroom that contained a straw with "white residue," the complaint said, as well as a blue m30 pill that was later determined to contain fentanyl. A wallet inside the purse also had a baggie with suspected crumbs of narcotics.
Authorities at the scene asked Travis what the chances are that the victim got into her drugs, to which she replied "seventy-five," the complaint said.
The death occurred amid a child custody dispute within the family.