KC mother sentenced to seven years after her toddler son died of fentanyl poisoning
A Kansas City woman will spend seven years in prison after her toddler was found dead of fentanyl poisoning in 2022.
Tierra O’Field, 32, pleaded guilty to first-degree involuntary manslaughter in December 2024. Her 2-year-old son, Terrion, died on October 11, 2022, after getting into a bag of fentanyl that O’Field had left in his reach while she slept.
Upon responding to O’Field’s apartment, Kansas City police and emergency medical responders found Terrion unresponsive with signs of rigor mortis.
According to court documents,Tierra O’Field told detectives that she had fallen asleep on a chair with Terrion. By the time she was woken up by her mother and sister knocking on the door, court documents read, Terrion was unresponsive and cold to the touch.
O’Field kept a baggie of fentanyl in her bra, according to court documents; when checking on Terrion, she noted that the bag was out and empty, with “particles of fentanyl” around and under the toddler’s body.
While investigating O’Field’s apartment, detectives found a glass pipe; a “whitish rock-like substance;” five syringes coated in burned drug residue; and several scraps of tinfoil also coated in burned residue, according to court documents. O’Field’s mother told detectives that Tierra, then 29, struggled with drug addiction.
Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. Two milligrams of fentanyl is considered a lethal dose; a parcel of fentanyl the size of a sugar packet could kill 500 adults.
O’Field’s case was submitted to the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office in January 2023. She was originally also charged with first-degree child welfare endangerment.
Terrion Lee O’Field was one of eleven siblings. The cheerful young boy was close with his many cousins and enjoyed playing football, dancing, wrestling and “Baby Shark,” relatives shared in his obituary.
Terrion was one of seven children ages 2 and under who died of fentanyl poisoning in Jackson County in 2022, according to an investigation by The Star.
Previous reporting by The Star’s Laura Bauer contributed to this article.
