Prosecutor: Area Woman Gets 8 Years for Overdose Death of Her 2-Year-Old

A Monmouth County woman has been sentenced to eight years in state prison in connection with the January overdose death of her 2-year-old son, Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond S. Santiago announced on Saturday.

Quanique Smith, 27, of Asbury Park, must serve at least 85 percent of the sentence before the possibility of parole under the provisions of New Jersey’s No Early Release Act (NERA), in accordance with the terms set in a hearing before Monmouth County Superior Court Assignment Judge Marc C. Lemieux.

The case background …

Shortly after 1 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 5, Asbury Park police responded to an apartment unit on the 100 block of Langford Street on a report of an unresponsive child. There, they found the toddler, who was rushed to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly before 2 a.m.

An investigation, led by Detective Stephen Cavendish of the Prosecutor’s Office’s Major Crimes Bureau and Detective Anthony Houlis of the Asbury Park Police Department, determined that heroin and fentanyl belonging to Smith had been left out in the family’s home within reach of the 2-year-old and his 5-year-old sibling. The 2-year-old ingested the drugs that caused his death.

Smith was arrested later the same day and transported to the Monmouth County Correctional Institution (MCCI) before being indicted in late March.

In May, Smith pleaded guilty to a charge of first-degree aggravated manslaughter, to be treated as a second-degree offense for the purposes of sentencing.

— Edited press release from the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office