A Texas father has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for his toddler’s fentanyl death. 

Michael Reed, 28, of Mansfield, pleaded guilty to and was convicted of injury to a child, causing serious bodily injury to his two-year-old daughter, Fox4News reported. Reed’s sister and roommate at the time, Jamie Popovic, was charged with abandoning and endangering a child. 

Officials said Reed waited two hours before calling 911 after his daughter Nevaeh ingested fentanyl-laced pills in February 2024, according to the report. Mansfield police ultimately responded to his apartment on Towne Crossing Boulevard just after 10 p.m., and paramedics performed CPR on the child before transporting her to a hospital. She was declared brain-dead and died ten days later at the hospital, according to the report.

Reed later admitted to investigators that he did not call 911 right away and instead searched online for how to make a child throw up. He also tried to use DoorDash to order Naloxone, a medication used to reverse opioid overdoses.

Popovic, the toddler’s aunt, told police she had tried to convince Reed to call 911 earlier, but she said he refused and said he did not want to lose custody of his children, according to the report. She told police there were blue and white pills around the apartment at the time of the incident. 

Officers found two pills on a desk in the apartment, drugs and drug paraphernalia, and a counterfeit oxycodone pill laced with fentanyl on the living room floor near where Nevaeh had been, according to the report. Investigators also found a loaded gun in the kitchen cabinet that the toddler would have been able to access.

“A third adult in the home, Anthony McDonald, told officers Nevaeh had walked into his room around 8 p.m. ‘covered in powder.’ He later heard commotion when Popovic was trying to wake Reed up, saying the child was unresponsive,” according to the report. “McDonald also tried to make her vomit and said he was aware she was injured because she appeared limp with her head bent backward.”

Popovic was sentenced to 60 months of probation in March, per court records.