The mother of a 5-year-old Queens boy who died of a drug overdose more than a year and a half ago was charged in his death on Thursday, police said.
Michael Guzman was found unresponsive at his home on 109th Avenue in Jamaica on Jan. 22, 2017, and died the same day at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, according to police.
Michael suffered from seizures, a police source said at the time of his death. The medical examiner’s office determined he died of an overdose of phenobarbital, which is used to treat certain types of epilepsy.
Investigators initially questioned his mother, Phyllis Reinoso, and the boy’s father as they awaited the medical examiner’s ruling on his cause of death, but no charges were immediately filed against the pair.
Reinoso had told police she gave Michael his epilepsy medicine and then left him alone with his five siblings around midnight, according to the source at the time of his death. When she returned home about two and half hours later, she told investigators the boy might have been having trouble breathing but he was able to walk from the couch to his bed and she didn’t check on him again until the following afternoon, when she found him unresponsive, the source had said.
Nearly a year later, in December 2017, police deemed Michael’s death a homicide and sought to re-question Reinoso, though they were unable to track her down until recently.
Reinoso, 31, was charged on Thursday with manslaughter, assault, reckless endangerment, acting in a manner injurious to a child and failure to exercise control of a minor, according to police.
Over the years, the Administration for Children’s Services had opened up 13 cases involving the family, five of which were determined to be unfounded, the police source said.
With Alison Fox and Nicole Brown
