A 35-year-old woman in Missouri has been arrested for allegedly giving a 14-year-old girl a lethal dose of fentanyl to treat a toothache, resulting in the teen girl’s death from an overdose.
Jacquelyn R. Powers was arrested last week and charged with one count of first-degree endangering a child’s welfare, which resulted in death, according to court documents reviewed by Law&Crime.
Authorities did not say what kind of relationship Powers had with the victim, who was named as “VT” in the documents, but several news outlets have said that Powers was the child’s mother.
By giving the victim a pill that contained fentanyl last month, prosecutors say in a criminal complaint filed in St. Louis County Circuit Court that Powers “knowingly acted in a manner that created a substantial risk to the life” of the victim, which led to her death.
Another piece of information about how the child died came from a probable cause affidavit from the Overland Police Department.
Police wrote that the 14-year-old victim told Powers on October 3, 2024, that she had a toothache. Powers is then said to have given the child “a pill that she found in her drawer.” She told police that she thought the pill was “oxycodone from her own previous surgery.”
Sadly, the person was found dead about 10 hours after Powers gave her the pill. After the fact, an autopsy showed that the person had died of a fentanyl overdose. Also, tests showed that the person who died did not have any oxycodone in her system when she passed away.
Powers is said to have given more information to police that showed she was responsible for the victim’s death.
A police report says the defendant told them she gave her mom some oxycodone in exchange for pills her mom bought on the street. This person said they kept those pills in a drawer.
The affidavit says Powers said she gave her mother the oxycodone she had been prescribed “in an effort to “protect” her mom from dangerous pills” she allegedly bought on the street.
Powers is wanted for arrest because “other street drugs were located inside the home” of Powers along with “other minor children.”
After an investigation, Powers was given an arrest warrant on Thursday. On Friday afternoon, she was arrested at her home in the 9500 block of Echo Lane in St. Louis.
“This is terrible,” said the captain of the Overland Police Department. KTVI in St. Louis heard what Jim Morgan had to say. “This must not happen.” She is 14 years old and has many years ahead of her.
Powers is being held at the St. Louis County Jail on a $150,000 cash-only bond right now. The next times she is due in court are for a bond hearing on November 19 and a preliminary hearing on December 11.
