What to Know
- A Staten Island mother has pleaded guilty to manslaughter after her 14-month-old daughter's death as a result of an opiod overdose in 2017
- Leila Wade will be sentenced on October 23, and faces up to four years behind bars
- The Staten Island girl had medication in her system that was prescribed to her mother
A Staten Island mother has pleaded guilty to manslaughter after her 14-month-old daughter's death as a result of an opiod overdose in 2017.
Leila Wade initially faced additional charges including criminally negligent homicide, endangering the welfare of a child and reckless endangerment. Under the plea agreement, however, Wade only had to plead guilty to a second-degree manslaughter charge.
Her 1-year-old daughter, Bianca Abdul, died on March 20, 2017, after her aunt found her unconscious and unresponsive inside her crib at home. She was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Medical examiners later found she died from a toxic cocktail of morphine and the anti-anxiety drug Valium. Police began investigating the toddler's death as a homicide in January 2018 before arresting Wade a few months later.
Sources say Bianca had medication in her body that was prescribed to her mother. It's not known how the child had ingested the medication.
Wade will be sentenced on October 23, and faces up to four years behind bars.
The I-Team previously reported that Abdul was on the city Administration for Children's Service's radar before her fatal overdose. According to sources familiar with the case, at least three complaints about about child abuse were filed between 2015 and 2016. The sources said a 12-year-old was removed from the home in the past, but later returned.
