MILWAUKEE COUNTY

Overdose death of toddler is 4th this year

Jesse Garza
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A 17-month-old boy is the fourth child younger than 3 this year to die of a prescription drug overdose in Milwaukee County, the medical examiner's office reported Friday.

The boy's death occurred in Greenfield in September, according to an official at the office, who was unable to provide additional information on the death because of a non-disclosure placed on the case by the Greenfield Police Department.

The other three deaths, which occurred in the city of Milwaukee, involved a 2-year-old girl who died of an overdose of oxycodone in August; a 17-month-old boy who died of an oxycodone overdose in May; and a 1-year-old girl who died of an overdose of methadone in February, according to medical examiner's reports.

According to the reports:

On Aug. 13, the 2-year-old girl was taken to Children's Hospital of Wisconsin after being found unresponsive in her home in the 4600 block of N. 76th St.

The girl was resuscitated after being in cardiac arrest but died on Aug. 15, one day before her third birthday.

Toxicology tests determined she died of an overdose of oxycodone and the antidepressant trazodone.

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The girl's father said her mother had been taking oxycodone for back pain and recounted an occasion where the drug was accidentally spilled on the kitchen floor. At the time he thought he picked up all of the pills but speculated that he might have missed some that the child later got a hold of.

No criminal charges were issued in connection with the girl's death.

On May 1, the 17-month-old boy was found unresponsive by his aunt in her home in the 6600 block of N. 75th St.

The boy was pronounced dead at the scene and toxicology tests later determined that he died from an overdose of oxycodone.

The boy's aunt had a prescription for the drug, according to the medical examiner's report. There are no indications that criminal charges were ever filed in connection with the boy's death.

And shortly before 7 a.m. on Feb. 16 Milwaukee firefighters responded to a home in the 3700 block of N. 15th St., where for 20 minutes they attempted to revive 1-year-old Cataleya Tamekia-Damiah Wimberly after she was found unresponsive in the bed she shared with her father and his girlfriend.

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Toxicology tests confirmed that Cataleya died of acute methadone intoxication in the home, which was filthy and trash-laden, according to a medical examiner's report.

Cataleya's half brother, Lamour Caesar-Burnley, was about 7 weeks old when he died of starvation in 2008.

The boy's mother, Vera Morehouse, pleaded guilty to child neglect resulting in death and was sentenced in 2010 to six years in prison.

Cataleya died in the same house, with some of the same relatives present, as her cousin K'Dyn Carson, a 2-month-old boy who was smothered under his sleeping grandmother in October 2014.

That grandmother, Sheree Wimberly, pleaded guilty in January to second-degree reckless homicide and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

The medical examiner's report does not indicate whether criminal charges were filed in connection with Cataleya's death.