It was 3 a.m. and Samantha Whitney Jones’ 11-week-old son was crying.

So, Jones did what many mothers would do: She sat down and tried to breastfeed him.

About five hours later, her baby would be dead. The cause of death, prosecutors say, was a “lethal combination of drugs” ingested through Jones’ breast milk.

On Friday, the 30-year-old Pennsylvania mother was charged with criminal homicide for the April 2 death of her infant son, identified in documents as R.J. An autopsy revealed that the baby’s blood contained methadone, amphetamine and methamphetamine, according to a probable cause affidavit.

As the investigation is still ongoing, it is possible Jones could face charges that carry a mandatory life sentence, Deputy District Attorney Kristin McElroy said in a statement from the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office. Jones’ bail was set at $3 million cash, the statement said.

Early on April 2, Jones told police she was “too tired” to go downstairs and make a bottle of formula for R.J., according to the affidavit. Instead, she opted to breastfeed, but said she “dozed on and off” and wasn’t sure if he actually drank any milk.

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Around 6 a.m., Jones’ husband found the pair. Jones was asleep and R.J. was crying, the affidavit said.

After Jones woke up, she asked her husband to prepare a bottle of formula, which she then fed to her son and placed him in his bassinet. Jones went back to sleep and when she awakened about an hour later, she went to check on R.J.

The baby was lying in his bassinet, pale and not breathing with “bloody mucous coming out of his nose,” according to the affidavit.

He was rushed to Doylestown Hospital, just over 6 miles away, but it was too late. Around 8:30 a.m., R.J. was pronounced dead.

Jones told police that she primarily breastfed her baby, but switched to formula a few days before his death because she was worried R.J. “wasn’t getting enough milk from breastfeeding and therefore was not sleeping,” the affidavit said. Authorities analyzed the contents of the baby formula and the bottle used to feed R.J. the morning he died, and neither tested positive for “illicit drugs,” according to the affidavit.

At the time of R.J.’s death, Jones said she was taking methadone, which she had been prescribed as part of treatment for a painkiller addiction.


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