Father Charged In Baby Daughter's Fentanyl Death: Riverside

RIVERSIDE, CA — A Riverside man who prosecutors allege is responsible for his infant daughter's fentanyl poisoning death is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday.

Donald Charles Wallace III, 32, is facing a single count of willful child cruelty with a special enhancement of corporal injury on a child causing death, according to court records. He is being held at Riverside's Robert Presley Detention Center in lieu of $75,000 bail.

According to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, at about 3 a.m. Dec. 2 deputies from the Jurupa Valley station were dispatched to a call of a baby not breathing in the 17000 block of Crown Creek Circle in Riverside.

When deputies arrived, the 2-month-old girl was already dead and investigators later concluded the infant died of fentanyl poisoning as a result of her father's carelessness.

It's not clear how the child came into contact with the fentanyl, but even a minute amount can kill an adult human.

"Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 100 times stronger than morphine and can cause death or serious bodily harm," the sheriff's department warned.

Wallace was arrested Feb. 24 at the Crown Creek Circle address.

Last year, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin announced they would pursue murder charges, when possible, against suspects who sell fentanyl to buyers who die of poisoning from the drug.