Verona, PA (PPP)— A Verona man has been charged with involuntary manslaughter after a toddler under his watch allegedly ingested his heroin laced with Fentanyl.

According to a criminal complaint filed in Magisterial District Court, David Dwayne Poindexter, 58 of Pittsburgh, was assisting his girlfriend babysit her granddaughter while the child’s parents went to a play on the evening of January 13, 2023.

The child was found unresponsive the following morning, according to the complaint.

According to the criminal complaint, the medical examiner located a stamp bad lodged in the toddler’s throat during autopsy. The bag tested positive for Fentanyl. The manner of the child’s death was ruled to be acute Fentanyl toxicity. The cause of death was accident.

Poindexter was arrested on April 17, 2023 and booked into the Alleghenay County Jail. Bail was denied citing “danger to community” as the bail action reason.

Name: David Dwayne Poindexter
Gender: Male
Age: 58

Agency: Allegheny County Police Department

Court: Magisterial District Court 05-0-03
Docket Number: MJ-05003-CR-0002083-2023
Date Filed: April 14, 2023

Bail: N/A
Confinement: Allegheny County Jail
Confinement Reason: Bail denied.

Criminal Charges

1. Involuntary manslaughter (Misdemeanor 1)
2. Recklessly endangering another person (Misdemeanor 2)

Affidavit of Probable Cause

Your affiants, Detectives Darren Gerlach and Brian Cervone are Detectives with the Allegheny County Police, currently assigned to the Homicide Unit. All of the information contained in this affidavit was learned directly by your affiants or relayed to them by other police officers / detectives involved in the investigation. All witnesses providing information contained in this affidavit will be available to testify at any and all court proceedings arising from the issuance of this process.

On 01/14/2023, at approximately 6:44, the Penn Hills Police Department was dispatched to ████████████ (Verona) for report of an unresponsive infant / not breathing. Upon arrival, Penn Hills Police Officers Fairley and Mularski found the unresponsive child on the floor of a second-floor bedroom with the father performing CPR.

Officers Fairley and Mularski took over CPR on the child, eventually turning over medical care to Penn Hills EMS, who also responded to the scene. After attempting life saving measures, the child was pronounced deceased by Penn Hills EMS – Medic ███████ at 7:05 AM.

At this time, Sgt. Renko (Penn Hills PD) requested the investigative assistance of the Allegheny County Police Homicide Unit. Detectives Donald Oesterle and William Hermann, along with your affiant, Detective Darren Gerlach responded to the scene to initiate an investigation. Also requested, for scene documentation and evidence collection, was the Allegheny County Mobile Crime Unit (MCU Scientist Choban).

████████████ is in the Verona section of Allegheny County. This area is patrolled by the Penn Hills Police Department. The residence was noted to be a brick two-story single-family structure near the intersection of ███████ St and ███████ St. As you enter the residence, a set of stairs ascend to the second floor which contained 3 bedrooms and a bathroom. The entire residence was photographed by MCU Scientist Choban before moving any items or the victim.

Directly to the left, at the top of the stairs, was a bedroom. An infant, identified as Zhuri Bogle, was observed to be lying supine at the foot of the bed. Bogle was noted to be wearing a yellow onesie and diaper. According to responding officers and medics, Bogle seemed cold and stiff to the touch. A full baby bottle was observed on the dresser of this bedroom. Additionally, the sheet of the bed had some staining near the head area.

The parents of Zhuri Bogle were in the living room of the residence. They were both individually interviewed by Detectives Oesterle and Hermann. The father, ███████, stated that he slept on the couch the previous evening and awoke to the child unresponsive, and the mother upset. The mother, ███████, stated that she slept in bed with Zhuri, and awoke to her unresponsive. ███████ then called ███████ for help and immediately called 911. ███████ told me that Zhuri was face down when she fell asleep with her and face down when she found her unresponsive this morning. Both parents report going to a play the night before, leaving the care of Zhuri to ███████’ mother, ███████. When they got home from the play, Zhuri was already asleep in the bed. Both parents reported that, to the best of their knowledge, Zhuri remained at the ████████████ residence the entire evening.

Further, ███████ reported the child to have no medical issues, other than a cold around Christmas of 2022. ███████ reported that Zhuri had just had a checkup recently. Zhuri is seen at Forbes Family Medicine in Bellevue and was born at McGee Hospital. The home was found to be cluttered but to have appropriate amounts of food and diapers on hand. No other sleeping area was found for Zhuri and ███████ reported to Det. Oesterle that she sleeps in bed regularly with Zhuri.

At approximately 9:45 AM, the remains of Zhuri Bogle were collected and removed from the residence by ACME Forensic Investigators Kopco and Longo for autopsy. On 01/15/2023 an autopsy was performed by Allegheny County Medical Examiner Karl Williams. During the autopsy, a small square packet, which appears to be a glassine baggie, with the word “Machine” printed on the front was recovered from Zhuri’s throat. Additionally, there appears to be a figure of a person on the packet. This packet was removed and preserved by the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Your affiant looked at the glassine baggie recovered from Zhuri’s throat. Based upon your affiant’s training and experience, your affiant recognized this baggie to be paraphernalia that is commonly used to package narcotics such as heroin and Fentanyl. During the course of his employment, your affiant has seen similar glassine baggies with the same shape and characteristics on numerous occasions, all of which involved narcotics such as heroin and Fentanyl. Finally, your affiant knows from his training and experience that narcotics such as heroin and Fentanyl. are very fast-acting and that a person who ingests these substances will show symptoms of the ingestion very quickly, which can include lethargy, shallow breathing, loss of consciousness and death. Per the. Allegheny County Office of the Medical Examiner; the cause of death for Zhuri Bogle was ruled drug intoxication — acute Fentanyl. toxicity and the manner of death was ruled accidental. Additionally, the glassing bag (stamp bag) that was removed from Zhuri Bogle’s throat was tested by the Drug Chemistry section of the Allegheny County Crime Lab. This item tested positive for Fentanyl.

Based on Zhuri Bogle being in the care of Mercedes William’s mother, ███████, the night before she was found unresponsive, your affiants reached out to ███████ for an interview. On 01/17/2023, at approximately 9:50 AM, ███████ came to the Allegheny County Police Headquarters for an interview. During this conversation, ███████ acknowledged that she was babysitting her granddaughter, along with her boyfriend David Poindexter, the night before Zhuri Bogle was found deceased. ███████ denied any drug use the night she watched Zhuri and said the child was acting normal until she fell asleep shortly before the parents got home. ███████ stated that the only time she was not directly watching Zhuri was when she went outside to smoke or went to the bathroom. When asked how Fentanyl. could have got into Zhuri’s system, ███████ stated that Poindexter is a drug user, to include daily methadone and heroin, although she did not directly see Poindexter use heroin that night.

On 01/19/2023, at approximately 11:00 AM, David Poindexter came to the Allegheny County Police Headquarters to be interviewed by your affiants. Poindexter acknowledged that he met his girlfriend, ███████, at ███████ house on 01/13/2023 so ███████ could babysit her granddaughter. Poindexter stated that he came to the house directly from a moving job. Upon his arrival, Poindexter said he played with the baby, smoked a blunt, had a burrito, and fell asleep on the couch. Poindexter said he awoke several times to see ███████ playing with the baby or to smoke a cigarette outside. Other than smoking the blunt, laced with crack cocaine, Poindexter denied having heroin on his person or ingesting heroin that night. Poindexter did admit to taking heroin the day before the 1/13/2023 and taking heroin in the days after but denied heroin use on this specific date.

On 02/06/2023, at approximately 1:30 PM, Det. Corinne Orchowski conducted another interview with David Poindexter. During this conversation, Poindexter told Det. Orchowski that he is a longtime drug user to include daily methadone and heroin use. Poindexter detailed to Det. Orchowski that on the day he watched Zhuri Bogle with ███████, he worked a moving job and earned $250. He then purchased 10 stamp bags of heroin that contained Fentanyl. These bags had some unknown black writing on the front of the bag. Poindexter then explained that he snorted one of the bags before going to the house to meet ███████ and discarded the bag out the window. The rest of the bags were together in a plastic bag in his pocket. Poindexter then said that ███████ asked him for one of the bags of heroin, which he provided. Poindexter said he witnessed ███████ snort one of the heroin bags from her hand with a red straw. Poindexter then admitted that he snorted one or two bags of the heroin out of his hand while at the house. He was unsure of he was inside or outside the house when ingesting the heroin.

On 02/09/2023 your affiants spoke with an inmate at the Allegheny County Jail named ███████. He stated that he knows David Poindexter from going to school together growing up. ███████ then told your affiants that he was in a holding cell together with Poindexter recently. During this time together Poindexter relayed to ███████ that he was getting high at the house, while watching Zhuri Bogle, and cannot remember if he dropped any of his drugs. He also said that ███████, as a result of taking heroin, nodded off in the house a few times, while watching the baby, and he had to slap her to wake back up.

Based on the aforementioned facts and circumstances,y our affiants respectfully request that an arrest warrant be issued for David Poindexter (DOB: ███████) for the above listed charges.