Wichita man sentenced to probation after suspected toddler overdose, records show

A 39-year-old Wichita man was sentenced to a year of probation in an incident where he gave Narcan to a 2-year-old girl he suspected of having a fentanyl overdose, court records show.

Charles James Lee Swepston was sentenced Thursday to a year of probation and an underlying prison sentence of equal length, according to Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office spokesperson Dan Dillon. Swepston pleaded guilty to aggravated endangering of a child in January, court records show.

Swepston’s co-defendant, 32-year-old Amanda L. Mills, currently has a warrant for her arrest after not showing up to court in August, court records show. She is also charged with aggravated endangering of a child.

The reported overdose happened Nov. 28, 2021, at an apartment in the 3100 block of South Victoria, near 31st South and Hydraulic.

Court records don’t say the relationship between the victim and the defendants.

Swepston woke up Mills and told her the girl, who was in bed with them, was not breathing, according to an affidavit released in the case. Mills told police the girl’s lips were blue, the affidavit says. Swepston gave the girl two doses of Narcan, which is used to counteract an opioid overdose.

Mills said the girl became responsive again after the Narcan, the affidavit says.

When asked why he used Narcan, Swepston told police “he had family members over earlier in the day that had Fentanyl and believed (the child) possibly ingested some of it,” the affidavit says. “(Swepston) refused to give any names of the family members with the Fentanyl.”

Police searched the home and found 0.6 grams of marijuana in the kitchen and two used containers of Narcan in the living room. Swepston and Mills were read their Miranda Warning, the affidavit says, and Swepston said he “did not want to incriminate himself” so didn’t talk.

Mills was arrested on a warrant, the affidavit says.

EMS took the child to the pediatric intensive care unit at Wesley Medical Center to be observed overnight. A drug test found nothing in her system, the affidavit says, but a hair sample tested positive for fentanyl.

Swepston and Mills also took drug tests and theirs came back positive for fentanyl, the affidavit says.

Fentanyl is a “synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine,” the CDC says.