Grandmother and boyfriend sentenced in Penn Hills infant's fentanyl death

A grandmother and her boyfriend who both used fentanyl-laced heroin around her 7-month-old grandchild while they were babysitting — leading to the child’s death from fentanyl poisoning — were sentenced on Wednesday in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court.

Barbara Ann Dunlap-Toombs, 68, of Larimer, will serve one to two years in the Allegheny County Jail after pleading guilty to endangering the welfare of children and reckless endangerment.

David Poindexter, 60, of Elliott, will serve at least 33 months after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter.

He was also sentenced on a count of aggravated assault stemming from a separate crime.

Both defendants will receive credit for time served on the case.

Dunlap-Toombs and Poindexter were watching her granddaughter, Zhuri Bogle, on Jan. 14, 2023, in Penn Hills while her parents attended a play, prosecutors said.

The next morning, they found Zhuri unresponsive. The baby died at the scene.

An autopsy revealed acute fentanyl toxicity. The medical examiner’s office also found a stamp bag in the baby’s throat, which tested positive for fentanyl.

According to Assistant District Attorney Diana Page, Poindexter was cooperative with investigators and told them that he purchased 10 stamp bags of heroin that day, and snorted one of them before going to the house to meet Dunlap-Toombs to babysit.

Page said that he put the rest in his pocket, and at the house, Dunlap-Toombs asked for a bag to snort, as well.

Poindexter told investigators that when she learned Zhuri had died, Dunlap-Toombs told him she thought she had dropped “something,” and may have accidentally killed the child.

Dunlap-Toombs didn’t tell her daughter or the police, Page said.

Page asked for an aggravated range sentence of 2½ to 5 years in state prison because Dunlap-Toombs tried to hide her involvement in the crime, even though she knew from the beginning what had happened to Zhuri.

Page told Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Jill E. Rangos that the video from the body camera footage worn by officers showing Zhuri’s mother letting out a guttural scream when she learned why her daughter died was one of the worst things she ever had to watch.

Dunlap-Toombs tried to convince Poindexter to take the blame for bringing the drugs into the house, Page said, pushing for the higher sentence.

But defense attorney Elbert Grey, who represented Dunlap-Toombs, said that the woman pleaded guilty to spare her children and grandchildren from having to hear the details of the case.

“She’s here to accept responsibility,” he said. “There’s no cause, or no reason, why this happened.”

In a statement, Dunlap-Toombs said she thinks about Zhuri every day and night.

“I see her in my dreams,” she said. “I’m so sorry. I miss her so much.”

Dunlap-Toombs said she hopes to someday rebuild the relationship with her daughter.

“I lost my granddaughter and my daughter,” she said. “If I could die and bring her back, I would do that in a heartbeat.”

During Poindexter’s hearing, he cried at the defense table throughout Page’s summary of the case and during his own statement.

“I loved that baby,” Poindexter said. “I loved that baby so much.”

He apologized repeatedly to Zhuri’s parents.

“I’m so very, very sorry for what happened,” he said. “I wish it had been me instead of that baby.”