1-year-old Wall girl nearly died ingesting ‘tranq’; 9 months later, police arrest her father

A convicted drug dealer was arraigned Tuesday on charges that he nearly killed his 1-year-old daughter last spring when the girl ingested “tranq,” a powerful sedative mixed with fentanyl that authorities said he was using in her Wall home.

Jeffrey Lee Carter, 36, of Clairton was visiting the mother of his child on April 16, 2023, when their daughter ingested the veterinary tranquilizer xylazine, a nonopioid sedative increasingly popular among illicit drug users, according to a criminal complaint in the case.

The baby, who police did not name, entered the Pennsylvania Avenue home’s bathroom and indicated to her mother, Jasmine McLean, that she wanted to be held, the complaint said. After McLean picked her up, the girl “went limp and became unresponsive.” The parents called 911 and rushed her to the hospital.

At UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, the girl was treated for “overdose symptoms” and was given Narcan, which reverses the effects of opioids such as heroin and fentanyl, the complaint said. She remained in critical condition in the pediatric intensive care unit.

A hospital doctor told police the young girl’s condition was “near fatal,” the complaint said. She later tested positive for xylazine and fentanyl.

Police charged Carter in April with three felony counts of aggravated assault and one count of endangering the welfare of a child.

He was arrested Monday and taken to the Allegheny County Jail early Tuesday, court records show. District Judge Thomas S. Brletic denied him bail, stating in court paperwork that Carter “is a danger to the victim and community.”

Carter’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for Jan. 11. No attorney was listed for him in the court record.

Jim Madalinsky, an Allegheny County police spokesman, declined to comment Wednesday on the delay between the incident and the arrest.

Carter told county police that he has “a history of drug abuse” but “has not used drugs since May of 2022,” the complaint said. He also said he was prescribed Suboxone, a drug used to treat opioid addiction, and was in treatment.

But he later told a staffer with Allegheny County’s Department of Children, Youth and Families that McLean “is not aware that he is currently using drugs,” the complaint said.

Carter said he was not in treatment or taking Suboxone, the complaint said. He relapsed in late 2022 and had been using xylazine, according to the complaint.

Xylazine is often sold illegally after being mixed with opioids such as heroin and fentanyl.

Police searched McLean’s house April 18 and found three cut, red straws — one under a couch pillow, another under a table, and a third behind a bedroom dresser, the complaint said. Illicit drug users sometimes employ straws as drug paraphernalia, according to authorities.

Madalinsky declined to answer specific questions about how the girl came into contact with the drugs.

Efforts Wednesday to reach McLean by phone were unsuccessful.

This is not Carter’s first run-in with the law over drugs.

He pleaded guilty in federal court on Dec. 16, 2010 to three felony counts of possession of crack cocaine with intent to distribute, records show. U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer sentenced Carter in 2011 to 70 months in prison, followed by four years of supervised release.

Carter was incarcerated at a federal prison in Preston County, West Virginia, about 30 miles east of Morgantown, from July 7, 2015 to Aug. 8, 2019, federal Bureau of Prisons spokesman Scott Taylor said. He transferred to a “residential reentry management” program in August 2019 and was released the following month.