Boston Couple Charged With Manslaughter in Death of 5-Week-Old Baby Allegedly Exposed to Drugs By Madison E. Goldberg

A couple from Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood were charged with manslaughter in the death of their 5-week-old baby.

Raynell L. Reed and Gerard L. Winn both pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter charges in Suffolk Superior Court on Monday, Nov. 24, The Boston Globe reports. Both were ordered held on $100,000 cash bail pending their upcoming court date on Dec. 18, the paper reports.

Reed, 31, and Winn, 52, found out Reed was pregnant in September 2024, Boston.com reports. The couple’s baby was born Dec. 5, 2024 and died in January the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office confirmed to the outlet. The child was born in the couple’s home, located on Cheney Street in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood. Reed gave birth an estimated two months prematurely, according to the outlet.

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The Chief Medical Examiner ruled the child’s cause of death to be “acute intoxication from the combined effects of fentanyl and cocaine, in a premature infant with malnourishment and sepsis,” according to Boston.com.

Reed called 911 on Jan. 9 when the infant, identified in court documents as G.R.W., was not breathing. The baby later died at Boston Medical Center, prosecutors claim, per The Boston Globe.

“During the five weeks of her life, G.R.W. failed to gain or maintain weight and was severely malnourished,” Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Laura C. Drohan wrote in court documents obtained by The Globe. “Despite knowing that their baby was born at least two months premature and observing the newborn was unable to gain or maintain weight, the defendants never sought any medical care for the infant as her health continued to significantly deteriorate.”

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The baby was also malnourished and went into sepsis, weighing only 2.5 pounds, NBC 10 Boston reports.

PEOPLE has reached out to the Suffolk County DA’s Office and the Chief Medical Examiner for further information.

If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.