Back in January, we reported on charges filed against 41-year-old David Vasquez, accused of drug dealing after a long investigation that involved undercover buys in West Seattle and eventually netted drugs, guns, and cash. As charging documents noted, police found out about Vasquez while investigating the death of a 3-month-old baby in Southeast Seattle, blamed on fentanyl she apparently ingested through her mother’s milk. No charges were filed at the time – but that has just changed.
A reader pointed us to this Seattle Times report about charges against the baby’s parents, 36-year-old Samantha De Leo and 44-year-old Christopher Keadle. We subsequently found the charging documents in King County Superior Court online files. Each was charged this past week with first-degree felony manslaughter. The charging documents say:
While Ms. DeLeo was obviously the conduit for directly exposing the baby to the drugs that killed her, Mr. Keadle was most often the person who procured the drugs for Ms. DeLeo and without question aided in creating the environment and conditions under which the baby died. Both defendants are responsible for the death of their baby.
Police say cell phone records show more than 2,000 phone contacts between the couple and the accused dealer over an eight-month period before and after the baby’s death last year. They are out on bond and scheduled for arraignment April 27th. Vasquez, meantime, was briefly out on bond for a few days in January but then rebooked for what the jail register says was a failure to appear. He has twice asked for his $250,000 bail to be reduced, and again last week, a judge said no.
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