Pennsylvania Woman Poisons Child

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

A Pennsylvania mother was sentenced to prison Tuesday after being found guilty of giving her 2-year-old son a lethal dose of opioids.

Jennifer Clarey, 43, of Tullytown, was charged with third-degree murder and endangering the life of her son Mazikeen Clarey for putting the Vicodin medication in the boy's infant bottle, known in English as 'sippy cup'.

Elements of the police and paramedics discovered the boy dead and lying on a bed on August 25, 2018. The boy's body lay next to that of his mother, who had cut her wrists.

The discovery was made when authorities conducted a home search by order of the Bucks County Children's and Youth Service. A subsequent autopsy found that the boy had died of hydrocodone and diphenhydramine HCI poisoning, the latter an active ingredient in Benadryl.

The woman suffered from her mental faculties and the medications she gave her son had been prescribed for her a week before the tragedy occurred.

"You should be there to protect your child but instead you were so careless and inconsiderate and selfish that you took your son's life before he could explore all that life had to offer him," the judge lamented. Clyde W. Waite in a statement. "This cannot be accepted in a civilized society."

"This goes beyond being a horrible tragedy," District Attorney Matthew D. Weintraub said at a press conference where the charges were announced. "This is clearly an act [of a] murderer."

The woman did not deny her charges and in her defense said that she had been admitted on at least four occasions to receive mental treatment. Clarey now faces 25 to 50 years in prison.