Syracuse mother pleads guilty to 11-month-old’s death from fentanyl overdose

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — Two years later, a Syracuse mother is pleading guilty to the death of her baby, caused by a fentanyl overdose.

The Onondaga County District Attorney Bill Fitzpatrick confirmed that 11-month-old baby, Liam Sauve’s mother, 33-year-old Elizabeth R. Sauve, pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide on Monday, March 12.

On May 9, 2022, the Onondaga County 911 center received a report of a baby in poor health in Syracuse. The child, an 11-month-old baby, Liam Sauve, was brought to the hospital and was pronounced dead.

A subsequent investigation found that the cause of the death was fentanyl toxicity, so the Syracuse Police Department in conjunction with the District Attorney’s Office began an investigation that led to the arrest of Elizabeth Sauve on Aug. 25, 2022, and later her boyfriend 38-year-old Quyen Huynh.

The two were “charged for recklessly causing the child’s death, by allowing that dangerous substance, fentanyl, to be in the apartment and get into the child’s body,” Onondaga County Chief Assistant District Attorney Melinda McGunnigle told NewsChannel 9 in 2022.

Sauve pleaded guilty to her charges as well as to being put on probation in exchange for testifying against her boyfriend.

“This was something that the child would’ve had to ingest that day, it’s just a tragic circumstance that this child was only 11-months-old and died of something that’s been killing so many people in the City of Syracuse,” said McGunnigle.

It’s still unclear how the baby ingested the fentanyl.

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