Around 12:30 p.m. on June 15, 2023, police and fire crews responded to an apartment complex
on 55th Avenue just north of Indian School Road after someone called to report that a child was unresponsive and turning blue.
When officers went into a bedroom, Walton was reportedly performing chest compressions on the toddler. The 15-month-old boy was taken to a hospital and died a short time later.
According to court documents, officers saw several light blue pills stamped with M30, believed to be fentanyl, scattered around the bedroom. They also saw pieces of foil with burnt residue in the bedroom and a bathroom, consistent with fentanyl use.
Police then spoke with Walton, who reportedly told officers that her son was acting normally when she woke up at 6 a.m. and that she went back to sleep. The next time she woke up, she said she couldn’t get him to respond and called for help.
She reportedly said he was a healthy child but “was always getting into things and touching things.”
Detectives later served a search warrant in the apartment. In the bedroom, officers collected numerous M30-stamped pills from the bed where Walton and her son slept and from the floor around the bed.
Investigators also recovered several items of drug paraphernalia, including glass pipes.
Police also spoke with the man who lived at the apartment, who told him Walton and her child had been staying there off and on for about a week. He also said he saw the boy moving around earlier in the morning, hours before Walton came running out of the bedroom and told him to call 911.
Walton was interviewed again at police headquarters. Per documents, she told officers she and her son had only stayed at the apartment for one night. She also said the drugs and paraphernalia found in the bedroom were not hers.
Police reached out to the Arizona Department of Child Safety and were told Walton had multiple previous reports involving illicit drug use, including cocaine, methadone and opiates. DCS added that she had lost custody of four of her other children.
The agency also noted that four of her children, including the one who died, were addicted to substances at birth.
An autopsy later determined her son died from fentanyl toxicity and that there were no other contributing causes.
A blood screen showed that Walton had fentanyl and other substances in her system on the day of her son’s death. Tests also showed that the pills collected at the apartment were confirmed to be fentanyl.
www.azfamily.com
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