DA: Mother charged after baby dies from drugs transmitted through breast milk

NEW BRITAIN, Pa. (WTXF) - Authorities say a Bucks County mother has been charged after her 11-week-old baby died from a lethal combination of drugs transmitted through her breast milk.

Samantha Whitney Jones, 30, was charged Friday with criminal homicide in the April 2 death of her infant son at her home.

An autopsy found that the baby died from a combination of methadone, amphetamine and methamphetamine, allegedly transmitted through Jones’ breast milk, according to a probable cause affidavit.

The child’s father told police that he found Jones and the baby in separate bedrooms at about 6 a.m. on April 2. The baby was crying, and Jones asked her husband to prepare a bottle of formula for him, the affidavit said.

Jones told police that after her husband left for work, she fed the baby the formula, placed him in a bassinet at about 6:30, and fell asleep. She awakened an hour later to find the infant pale, with bloody mucous coming from his nose, according to the affidavit.

Jones called out to her mother, who was elsewhere in the house, the affidavit said, and the mother began CPR at the instruction of a dispatcher after they called 911.

New Britain Township police arrived at 7:38 a.m. to find the baby in cardiac arrest. The child was taken by ambulance to Doylestown Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 8:29 a.m. in the emergency room, the affidavit said.

According to the affidavit, Jones told police that she had been prescribed methadone because of an addiction to painkillers, that she had taken it during her pregnancy, and that she was taking it at the time of the baby’s death.

Jones said she had been primarily breast-feeding the baby, but had switched to formula three days earlier, saying the infant wasn’t getting enough milk from breast feeding, the affidavit said.

According to authorities, Jones said that on the morning the child died, the baby was crying at 3 a.m. and that she tried to breastfeed him because she was too tired to go downstairs and prepare a bottle of formula.

Bail has been set at $3 million cash. A preliminary hearing is set for July 23.

Jones has a 2-year-old son who is currently in the care of his father.