Exactly how 23-month-old Kristofer Ferreyra got his tiny hands on the stash of fentanyl that allegedly belonged to his mother remains a mystery.
But newly released court documents suggest the toddler went to sleep the night of Oct. 17 mere feet from the spot where his mother used a stash of tin foil and cut straws to smoke the powerful synthetic painkiller as part of a gnawing opioid addiction. He was found unconcious the next morning, and pronounced dead at a hospital.
Numerous details of Kristofer’s final night alive came into focus Thursday after Alameda County prosecutors filed involuntary manslaughter and felony child abuse charges against his mother, Sophia Gastelum-Vera, in the boy’s death. She made her first court appearance in the case, wearing red jail scrubs and showing little emotion as a court-appointed attorney waived her arraignment and a formal reading of the charges against her. At least eight relatives and friends, including her mother, looked on in the courtroom.
An Alameda County judge ordered her held at the Santa Rita Jail on $135,000 bail.
Fremont investigators suspect Gastelum-Vera knew exactly how dangerous it was to bring fentanyl into her house when she smoked the potent painkiller the evening of Oct. 17 in the bedroom she shared with Kristofer and his 4-year-old brother, according to court records filed by the police department.
Gastelum-Vera found Kristofer unresponsive at about 6:30 a.m. on Oct. 18, a mere 10 days before his 2nd birthday. Her boyfriend, who also slept in the room with them that night, took the boy and his mother to the hospital, where the toddler was pronounced dead an hour later.
Gastelum-Vera initially told police that she didn’t keep any drugs in the house when police interviewed her on Nov. 7, about three weeks after the baby’s death. She had good reason to be wary of the drug — one of her friends had died from the synthetic opioid just two years ago, the court documents said.
Yet when officers searched the house shortly after the boy’s death, they found cut straws, tin foil and empty baggies that were covered in the drug, the court records show. Investigators also said they found messages on the mother’s phone detailing how she purchased fentanyl the night before her son’s death. Gastelum-Vera then asked her boyfriend to clean her bedroom the following day, investigators alleged.
When pressed about the discovery of the tin foil and drug-covered baggies, Gastelum-Vera acknowledged that she knew any drug paraphernalia that investigators found in the room would be covered in fentanyl, court records show.
Her boyfriend told investigators that Gastelum-Vera became addicted to fentanyl while using it to ease rib pain.
Kristofer’s death further stoked concerns this week that the powerful drug is being increasingly sold and used in family homes where infants can have easy access to it. In just the last few years, multiple children have died by ingesting the painkiller, which is 50 times stronger than heroin.
The growing death toll includes a 2-year-old Brentwood boy exposed to fentanyl in 2020 that, authorities say, was left around by his mother. More recently, a 1-year-old Livermore girl died of apparent fentanyl poisoning while at home with her father. And last spring, a 3-month-old girl died of a fentanyl overdose that has drawn the interest of state child protection services regulators.
On Thursday, the severity of Gastelum-Vera’s fentanyl addiction took center stage in a debate over whether she would be allowed out of jail anytime soon and see her three remaining children, ages 8, 6 and 5. They all have since been placed under the care of Alameda County’s Department of Children and Family Services.
Gastelum-Vera’s court-appointed attorney, Del Bahner, asked Alameda County Judge Veronica Rios-Reddick if the mother could be equipped with an ankle monitor and released from jail on her own recognizance. Bahner stressed that Gastelum-Vera had no prior criminal history — a fact that, he said, “speaks volumes” in the case.
“She is concerned about her children and is worried about them since being in custody,” Bahner said.
The request drew objections from prosecutor Alex Hernandez, who voiced concern about Gastelum-Vera being allowed to care for her three children. He suggested that he’d only green-light her release if she was sent to a residential treatment facility.
“Her extreme addiction to fentanyl led to the death of a 23-month-old baby in an extremely tragic incident,” Hernandez said. “The safety of her other children is paramount.”
Gastelum-Vera is due back in court on Nov. 15, when a judge is expected to review a report detailing her eligibility for that treatment program.
Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.
