A baby less than a month old died beneath her intoxicated mother while the two were in bed in a western Hennepin County home, according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday.
Justice M. Ellis, 20, of St. Paul, was charged in District Court with second-degree manslaughter in connection with the death on Aug. 16 of 28-day-old Nyomi Portillo-Ellis.
Nyomi's cause of death was mechanical asphyxiation, with unsafe sleeping conditions as a contributing factor, according to the Medical Examiner's Office.
Ellis was charged by summons and is due in court on Feb. 23. A message was left with her seeking a response to the charge. Court records do not list an attorney for her.
According to the complaint:
Law enforcement was dispatched to a home about halfway between Osseo and Dayton for a medical emergency. Officers located a baby, later determined to be Nyomi, not breathing. Paramedics declared her dead at the scene.
A man at the home told an officer that he heard a baby crying and entered a room, where Nyomi and an infant sibling had been sleeping with Ellis and their father, Edson Portillo.
The man said one baby was in a crib, while Nyomi was on the bed "partially under" Ellis, the complaint read. The man said Nyomi was not breathing and appeared "really white." A woman in the home saw the baby under Ellis' leg.
