MIAMI – A 33-year-old woman was at the Federal Detention Center in Miami Wednesday after a judge sentenced her over her role in a baby’s death.
Detectives reported Samantha Yi sold the drugs that killed a 10-month-old baby girl to her mother, Kelly Ann Kirwan, who was a regular customer.
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“It’s dropping people, so you’ve got to be careful,” Yi said during a transaction with an undercover agent, records show.
Kirwan called 911 on March 31, 2022, and fire rescue personnel took the unresponsive baby from an Audi in Boyton Beach to Bethesda Hospital East.
The baby died on April 5, 2022, at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood. A medical examiner reported she died of fentanyl intoxication.
On Jan. 15, a judge sentenced Yi, of Lake Worth, to 288 months in prison. She had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, distribution of fentanyl resulting in death, possession with intent to distribute controlled substances, and possession of firearms by a convicted felon.
In October, a federal judge sentenced Yi’s boyfriend Darnell Julio Mendez, a convicted felon, to 360 months in prison. Kirwan was arrested for aggravated manslaughter of a child by culpable negligence.
The Boynton Beach Police Department, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration worked together on the cases.