Background: The home where Tashae Goodman's baby was found unresponsive on March 22 (Google Maps). Inset: Tashae Goodman (Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office).
A Wisconsin mother has been charged with reckless homicide after the death of her 3-month-old baby.
Tashae Goodman, 31, was arrested Sunday following an investigation into the death of her 3-month-old son. According to a criminal complaint reviewed by Law&Crime, Goodman called 911 during the early morning hours of March 22 when she found her baby was not breathing. She allegedly told dispatchers that she "slept on" the baby while they were both on a couch. Paramedics arrived and performed lifesaving procedures on the boy, who was pronounced dead at 4:29 a.m.
Goodman allegedly told police that it was not the first time the baby "fell in there," referring to the gap between the cushions and the back of the couch.
Police said Goodman explained that the baby had been fussy, and he would cry unless she held him, which she did for most of the day, including when she went to the bathroom and went to bed. After the baby's last feeding at 1 a.m. on March 22, Goodman said she laid the baby down on the sectional couch between herself and the back of the couch. When she woke up at 3:40 a.m., the baby was "wedged" between the cushion and the back of the couch and "bleeding from his nose and head."
An autopsy performed on the baby revealed the little boy had been in good health with no signs of trauma, illness, or disease that would explain his death. The medical examiner delayed ruling a cause and manner of death until toxicology results came back.
According to the complaint, police searched jail phone records and uncovered a conversation between Goodman and the baby's father, who was in custody. The father had apparently tried to call Goodman several times during the day on March 20, and she finally answered at 4:57 p.m. During that call, the father accused Goodman of being "high," saying, "I can hear it in your f—ing voice." Police said Goodman's speech sounded "slurred" during the call.
On the day her baby died, Goodman allegedly called the baby's father again, telling him that she "did not want to live," saying, "I f—ed up babe. I f—ed up. I don't wanna go crazy. I asked God if I should just leave earth and he said no." She reportedly also asked the baby's father, "[S]hould I go to detox?"
More than a month after the baby died, toxicology results revealed that the baby bottle Goodman said was used for the baby's final feeding allegedly contained fentanyl. The baby also had fentanyl, xylazine, heroin, and oxycodone in his system when he died, investigators say. His cause of death was mixed drug toxicity, and the manner was ruled as homicide.
Further investigation revealed that on March 20, the day the baby's father tried calling Goodman multiple times and accused her of being high, Goodman had apparently failed to show up to pick up both her children from day care. Police interviewed the day care owner, who said Goodman blamed "sleeping pills and cold medication" for making her "groggy." When Goodman still did not show up, the owner dropped the children off at the home of Goodman's emergency contact because Goodman was not answering her phone.
The father of Goodman's baby accused Goodman during a call from jail on March 20 of "dropp[ing] the baby off at daycare so [she] could get high."
Goodman agreed to speak with detectives after being read her rights, according to the complaint. During her interview, she allegedly claimed that the drugs found in her 3-month-old baby's system were there because they were transmitted "in utero." Police wrote that the claim "defies logic, common sense, and science." Goodman apparently denied using drugs on a regular basis, but then allegedly admitted to using Percocet. Police say that she attempted to explain the drugs allegedly found in her baby's bottle as "residue" that was there because she had not kept up with cleaning her home.
Police cited two instances in which Goodman allegedly overdosed, including one incident on May 12 at her 10-year-old son's school. Her son told police at the time that his mother was "under the influence of drugs on a regular basis." Goodman allegedly overdosed again three days later.
Goodman was charged with reckless homicide and two counts of chronic neglect of a child. She is currently in custody at the Milwaukee County Jail, where she is being held on $250,000 cash bond. She was scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday.
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