A baby died on Halloween after his parents exposed him to fentanyl. Mom is sentenced
A Wichita mother was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years in prison after her infant son died from fentanyl poisoning last Halloween.
Wilma Faye Presley and the baby’s father, Brijin M. McCullough, were charged in March after 1-year-old Kaiden McCullough became unresponsive during the family’s Halloween activities, which included a candy-shopping trip to a Walmart in south Wichita. It was at the store, 501 E. Pawnee, that the parents realized their son had blue lips and was lifeless. The baby was taken by ambulance to a Wichita hospital, where he was pronounced dead. An autopsy revealed lethal levels of fentanyl in the boy’s system.
Kaiden turned 1 about two weeks before he died, according to his obituary.
Kaiden’s parents, who had arrived at the Walmart in separate vehicles shortly before 10 p.m., apparently thought he was sleeping when they took him and other children into the store to shop. Before he died, Kaiden had been living with an aunt because he tested positive for methamphetamine at birth and was removed from his parents’ care.
A heavily redacted probable cause affidavit released in Presley and McCullough’s cases suggests Kaiden was fatally exposed to the fentanyl because one or both of his parents were dealing drugs that night. Presley told police she saw McCullough “conducting a drug transaction” at a QuikTrip shortly before Kaiden got into McCullough’s car; the baby was in the car with his father when they got to Walmart, the affidavit says.
Presley, 36, pleaded guilty on July 12 to one count of distribution of a controlled substance causing death and one count of aggravated endangering a child. She and McCullough, 32, were originally both charged with first-degree felony murder and aggravated child endangerment. McCullough pleaded guilty in July to second-degree unintentional murder and three misdemeanor counts of endangering a child and is scheduled for sentencing on Friday in this and other cases.
Prosecutors and Presley’s lawyer each asked Sedgwick County District Judge Jeffrey Goering to follow a negotiated plea agreement that spared her a possible life sentence over Kaiden’s death.
No relatives of the baby, except Presley, spoke aloud in court about the impact of his death on their family, although the judge said he received letters from four people. The letters, from relatives and one of her children’s guardians, were written in support of Presley and called her a “good mother” who loves her children “too much to mistreat them,” court records show.
When it was her turn to address the court, Presley told Goering she was speaking Wednesday with a “heavy heart, a broken heart” because her beloved son was gone, in part due to her own misdeeds.
“I’m not perfect. I made mistakes. ... My life changed forever the day I lost my son,” she said, promising to learn from her failures.
“Nothing makes me feel more complete than being a mother, and now part of me is missing.”
Presley was also sentenced in a second case Wednesday stemming from a series of jail phone calls between her and McCullough earlier this year where they conspired to sell drugs after McCullough’s arrest. In that case, Presley pleaded guilty to using a communication facility for drug sales or purchases and several charges for possessing and conspiring to distribute marijuana, methamphetamine and a controlled substance.
She received a total of 130 months in prison for those convictions, but the judge said she could serve the term simultaneously with the 240-month sentence, so it won’t extend her prison stay.
This story was originally published September 11, 2024 at 5:36 PM.
