PEABODY — The mother of a 2-year-old girl who died of an apparent fentanyl overdose while living in a car last month was ordered held without bail by a judge who called the facts of the case “egregious.”
Vanessa K. Jeising, 28, shook violently and wept at times as Judge James Barretto listened to the allegations against her during a detention hearing Friday afternoon.
Jeising’s daughter, Lily Iorio, 2, was pronounced dead in the early morning hours of Jan. 18 after Jeising — apparently with some reluctance — drove her to Lahey Hospital in Peabody.
It was more than 12 hours, prosecutor Kate MacDougall said, after Jeising first became concerned that Lily had gotten into her supply of fentanyl.
In the hours between noticing powder on the child’s blanket and that the toddler was not responsive, and her late-night calls to two friends asking for Narcan, a prosecutor said Jeising was more preoccupied with trying to find something else to steal, to sell, to purchase drugs.
Jeising’s attorney, Thomas Gately, had hoped to convince the judge to release Jeising on conditions while she awaits trial on charges of child endangerment and permitting injury to a child, and potentially — once the medical examiner’s report is complete — charges that she caused the child’s death.
MacDougall, meanwhile, asked Barretto to detain Jeising, if not for the public’s safety, but her own as well, noting she had just completed a detox program and was at a high risk of overdosing.
MacDougall said Jeising is potentially facing, at a minimum, a manslaughter charge.
“Where is she going to live?” MacDougall asked, pointing out that Jeising was living in a car that has now been seized as evidence in the case, and that her only close relative, her mother, lives in New Hampshire.
Jeising’s mother, Gina Magoon, was not at Friday’s hearing, but a week earlier, said outside court that she had been pleading with DCF to remove the child from Jeising’s custody after realizing her daughter was going back and forth between hotel rooms and her car.
MacDougall told the judge that Jeising had been offered services by DCF since an initial report of neglect or abuse last August. The offerings included a parenting aide. But Jeising was not consistent in availing herself of those services, said MacDougall.
The prosecutor also said Jeising was more concerned about being arrested than with seeking help for Lily, telling the judge it wasn’t until police pulled up that she even got out of the car in the Lahey parking lot — after first throwing drugs into a trash container.
Gately, who has obtained funds to hire a social worker and an investigator, said his client was failed by DCF, telling the judge that the agency knew she was living in her car on and off between August and January, and yet failed to ensure that she and her child had proper housing.
Jeising, who grew up in Peabody, was a former advanced placement and honors student at Peabody High, where she was a member of the Class of 2013.
More recently, Gately said, she had been working up to three jobs at a time.
“She did the best she could,” said Gately.
The baby’s father, Derek Iorio-Guthro, has been in jail.
“She needs services, not jail,” Gately said. “She is suffering, your honor.”
Barretto said that if the circumstances change and a plan to put her in a program can be developed, he would consider releasing her, but for now, she will stay in custody without bail.
“I will say in light of Lily’s passing, the facts in this case are not only tragic but in several respects, are egregious,” Barretto said. Jeising, he said, “showed extremely reckless disregard for the safety of Lily Iorio.”
A pretrial hearing is scheduled for March 3.