Father convicted of child abuse after giving Narcan to infant daughter who ingested his fentanyl
A man arrested in June after his 10-month-old daughter was hospitalized for ingesting what turned out to be fentanyl pleaded guilty Monday to felony child abuse and was sentenced to serve four years in state prison, prosecutors confirmed.
Jovany Armando Enciso-Solorio, 31, of Santa Ana, initially pleaded not guilty on June 28 to the felony charge and denied a sentencing enhancement for causing great bodily harm to a child younger than 5. But in a Westminster courtroom Monday, he changed his plea.
Although he faced up to 23 years in prison for a conviction on all charges, Enciso-Solorio’s guilty plea led the court to offer a sentence of four years, a proposition to which prosecutors objected, according to a release issued Tuesday by the Orange County district attorney’s office.
The charges stem from an incident that took place in the city of Costa Mesa on June 25, when Enciso-Solorio’s infant daughter was taken to the hospital after falling unconscious.
After changing his story several times, Enciso-Solorio admitted his daughter had ingested fentanyl after sucking from a straw which contained the opioid drug. In an attempt to save her life, he administered the baby Narcan, a drug used to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.
“Fentanyl is a deadly game of Russian roulette — for the people who know they’re taking it, for the people who have no idea what they are taking actually contains fentanyl, and for innocent babies like this who rely on adults to protect them,” Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer said in Tuesday’s release.
“This baby was literally just a few breaths away from dying. Four years in state prison is not enough for someone whose entire job is to protect their child from harm and, instead, hands them what equates to a loaded gun.”
Jovany Armando Encisosolorio pleaded not guilty during his arraignment in the jail courtroom in Santa Ana and was ordered back to court July 7 in the West Justice Center in Westminster for a pretrial hearing.
Monday’s conviction amounts to a “second strike” for Enciso-Solorio, convicted in 2009 of second-degree robbery with a criminal gang enhancement, according to the D.A.’s office. He pleaded guilty in January 2010 and was sentenced to two years in prison, City News Service reported on Tuesday.
Orange County Superior Court records indicate Enciso-Solorio also pleaded guilty to carrying a dirk or dagger in February 2013, for which he received a 16-month sentence, and was convicted on a felony charge of recklessly evading police in February 2015. For that crime, he was sentenced to serve two years in prison, according to CNS.
Enciso-Solorio is scheduled to appear in court Dec. 19 for a firearms relinquishment hearing.
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