Canonsburg couple ordered to stand trial in infant’s drug death
Three-month old Navaeah May died of fentanyl poisoning while in the care of her parents at their Canonsburg home in August, although it’s unclear how the drugs were introduced in her system, according to testimony at the couple’s preliminary hearing Friday.
The infant’s parents, James May IV and Shannon McKnight, are facing homicide charges in the baby’s Aug. 11 death after the little girl and her 16-month-old brother both tested positive for drugs.
“It’s that potent and that’s why police officers wear gloves, because it can kill if you touch it,” Washington County District Attorney Jason Walsh said of the lethality of fentanyl. “It will definitely kill a 3-month-old, and it did.”
May and McKnight were sleeping in the same bed with Navaeah and the toddler in their their house at 1105 First St. when they noticed that the infant was unresponsive. May brought the baby to medics waiting outside while Canonsburg police Sgt. Anthony Cancilla tried to assist them when he arrived.
“I touched the baby on the cheek and felt it was cold,” Cancilla testified at the preliminary hearing in Washington County Central Court.
The child was pronounced dead at Canonsburg Hospital, and while May and McKnight initially spoke with investigators, they disappeared the following day. The couple was on the run for a week – even missing Navaeah’s funeral because they correctly assumed police had it under surveillance – until investigators located them in the attic of a Canton Township house Aug. 19.
Washington County Coroner Timothy Warco testified that toxicology tests showed that Navaeah died of fentanyl toxicity and ruled her death a homicide. That brought questions from May’s public defender, Glenn Alterio, who asked how the drugs got into the child’s body. Warco responded that he was unsure, but noted that even touching the drugs could be lethal, which is why police officers wear protective gloves while at a crime scene where fentanyl may be present.
“It’s a sad autopsy because it’s a child,” Warco said. “It’s a baby who was unprotected.”
The exchange between Alterio and Warco also brought a rebuke from Walsh as he pointed that there were empty stamp bags and drug paraphernalia scattered around the bedroom. He said it was reckless of the parents to allegedly use drugs while in bed with their two children. The 16-month-old was later taken to UPMC Children’s hospital in Pittsburgh, where his urine tested positive for cocaine.
“So, both kids in the same bed had (drugs) in their system?” Walsh asked Cancilla.
“Yes,” Cancilla responded.
Both Alterio and McKnight’s public defender, Rose Semple, asked District Judge James Saieva Jr. to dismiss the homicide charge because it was not known how the drugs got into the child’s system. Saieva disagreed and ordered them to stand trial for homicide, along with additional charges of child endangerment, reckless endangerment, possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.
May, 31, and McKnight, 23, are both being held without bond at the Washington County jail.