LIVERMORE — The father of a 1-year-old girl who died from apparently ingesting fentanyl has been arrested and charged with murdering her by leaving the deadly drug in a location where she could easily access it, court records show.
Justin Pittman, 22, of Livermore, was arrested Wednesday in Martinez on suspicion of murdering his daughter, Francesca Pittman, who was just a month away from her second birthday when she died last August. Pittman was also arrested on suspicion of battering a peace officer and resisting arrest, court records show.
Francesca was declared dead Aug. 18 after being rush to a hospital from her home on the 200 block of Turnstone Drive. Police say they were called there around 4:30 p.m. to a report of a large group of family members screaming outside the home that a young child was dead or dying, and attempting CPR.
Pittman and Francesca were taking a nap in his bed that afternoon. When his wife came home, she found Francesca had turned purple, police said.
When police arrived, a family member told them they’d overheard Pittman telling paramedics to give his daughter narcan, a drug used to treat fentanyl overdoses. When asked, he told officers he believed she had ingested fentanyl, and that he’d used the drug two days earlier, according to court records.
Pittman was booked into Santa Rita Jail following the incident. Five days later, he allegedly battered Alameda Sheriff’s Dep. Daniel Herrera inside the jail after Herrera ordered him back to his cell.
“Make me,” Pittman allegedly told the deputy before grabbing Herrera’s wrist. Herrera wrote in court records he knocked Pittman over with a “sweeping leg kick” and arrested him. Pittman was subsequently released from jail, and charged with two misdemeanors in late September.
Prosecutors filed the murder charge against Pittman on Thursday, court records show.
The girl was the city’s fourth fentanyl-related death in Livermore in 2022. There were an estimated 71,000 fentanyl overdoses last year, well more than the number of gun-related homicides or overdoses by other drugs.
“Fentanyl is an extremely dangerous drug and impacts the lives of many,” Livermore Police Chief Jeramy Young said in a written statement as part of a police news release. “Fentanyl use and the illegal distribution of the drug is a nationwide epidemic. This is a tragic loss for the family and our community, and I look forward to justice being served so there is some closure.”
Pittman, who worked as a forklift operator, is being held in the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin without bail. His first court appearances have been set for Friday in the resisting arrest case, and Monday in the murder case, records show.
Source: www.mercurynews.com