Police: Chimayó father arrested after 2-year-old child overdoses on fentanyl

A Chimayó father is awaiting a court date on Wednesday, three weeks after police say his 2-year-old daughter possibly overdosed on fentanyl.

Santana Casias, 28, is charged with abuse of a child and possession of a controlled substance, according to a criminal complaint filed in Rio Arriba County Magistrate Court.

During an Aug. 9 visit to an Española park, the toddler was noticed “dozing off,” according to the complaint.

Police said the mother told them as she was loading the car to return home for snacks, she saw her daughter playing with rocks and a blue pill on the ground. The mother said she looked inside the child’s mouth and saw a blue pill inside, but was unsure if it was candy .

The mother told police she administered Narcan, an overdose reversing drug, as they drove to the hospital but instead they were diverted to a fire station in southwest Española, where they met a police officer, according to the complaint. There, Santana Casias told the officer that the child had ingested a blue pill at a park.

Police said Casias and the child’s mother gave police different stories on which park they’d visited and Casias gave varying accounts to the officer about his actions. Casias told police he decided not to go to the hospital because the child was no longer “nodding off.”

Casias said he was also fearful that if they took his daughter to the hospital, the state Child, Youth and Families Department would get involved, according to the complaint. Authorities discovered Casias had multiple felony warrants for his arrest, including charges for abuse of a child and felon in possession of a firearm or destructive device.

Police said an officer searched Casias and found two round blue pills in his right pocket that were “consistent in appearance” with fentanyl pills. Casias told police the pills were indeed fentanyl, but the pills his daughter had ingested were not from him.

The daughter was hospitalized, and Casias was taken into custody by the Española Police Department before being booked into the Rio Arriba Detention Facility.

Casias was released on his own recognizance on Aug. 11. A court date was set for Aug. 30 at the Rio Arriba Magistrate Court, according to court documents.