A Fremont mother pleaded guilty this week to involuntary manslaughter in the death of her youngest toddler, who fatally overdosed on the powerful narcotic fentanyl just two weeks shy of his second birthday.
Sophia Gastelum-Vera, 27, formally agreed to the plea deal Wednesday after prosecutors voiced plans to drop a slew of lesser charges in the 2023 overdose, including a felony child abuse charge and multiple drug-related misdemeanors. She is expected to be sentenced on Oct. 21.
The plea deal comes nearly a year after Gastelum-Vera’s 23-month-old son, Kristofer Ferreyra, died of the same powerful synthetic painkiller that’s been responsible for several child deaths across the Bay Area in recent years.
It remains unclear exactly how authorities suspect the boy got his tiny hands on the fentanyl. The boy went to sleep in his mother’s bedroom the night of Oct. 17, 2023, mere feet from where Gastelum-Vera used a stash of tin foil and cut straws to smoke the opioid as part of a gnawing opioid addiction, authorities alleged.
Gastelum-Vera found Kristofer unresponsive at about 6:30 a.m. the following morning. Her boyfriend, who also slept in the room with them that night, took the boy and his mother to the hospital. Kristofer was pronounced dead an hour later.
Gastelum-Vera initially told police that she didn’t keep any drugs in the house. But when officers searched the Fremont home shortly after the boy’s death, they found empty baggies that were covered in the drug, as well as messages on the mother’s phone detailing how she purchased fentanyl the night before her son’s death, court records show.
The case added to fears that the powerful opioid — which is 50 times stronger than heroin — was being increasingly sold and used in family homes where infants can have easy access to it. Already, toddlers and infants in Brentwood, Livermore, Oakland and San Jose had either died of the drug or were seriously poisoned by it.
It also added to concerns about Alameda County’s safety net for children. A review by this news organization of Kristofer’s child welfare records found inconsistent record keeping and troubling inconsistencies in how county officials responded to the toddler’s death.
Shortly after the incident, one social worker recommended keeping his three young siblings in the care of his mother, despite police having just found drug paraphernalia littered throughout the boy’s bedroom, according to records obtained by this newspaper. The boy’s death wasn’t noted in a social worker’s initial assessment of the home.
Gastelum-Vera’s fentanyl addiction often took center stage in court hearings over the past two years.
Months after her arrest, a judge allowed her to be released from jail into a residential treatment program, where she lived for 90 days. She then was allowed to be released on her own recognizance while going through a court-ordered intensive outpatient treatment program.
Court records suggest she has excelled in that treatment program.
Multiple progress reports filed with the court gave her high grades for complying with program’s demands and adhering to random drug testing. The most recent report filed with the court, dated May 31, said she had been “actively engaged” in the treatment program and attended an average of two group sessions a day during the month of May.
“Overall, Sophia appears committed to her sobriety, practices open and honest self-reflection, and has demonstrated the ability to develop and implement effective tool for sustained sobriety,” the report said. “She is making excellent progress and attends above and beyond her minimum requirements.”
Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.
