Canonsburg man pleads guilty to lesser charge in infant daughter’s fentanyl death
3-month-old girl had lethal drug in her system when she died in 2022
The Canonsburg father whose infant daughter died from fentanyl poisoning nearly three years ago pleaded guilty to one felony count of drug delivery resulting in death Thursday, although he denied that it was the lethal drug that killed her.
James Riley May IV admitted that he and his girlfriend, Shannon McKnight, were addicted to drugs when 3-month-old Navaeah was found unresponsive on the morning of Aug. 11, 2022, while sleeping in bed with the couple at their First Street residence.
But he theorized during his statement after pleading guilty at the Washington County Courthouse that it was “co-sleeping” with the little girl that caused her death, despite investigators finding fentanyl in the child’s system.
“Although I don’t think it caused her death, I believe it might have had a small part,” May said. “I do not agree with the charge I’m pleading to. I just want to take accountability and take the steps to move forward and bring our family back together.”
After listening to his statement, Judge Valarie Costanzo accepted May’s guilty plea and sentenced him to serve 10 to 20 years in a state prison as part of the negotiated plea with prosecutors.
May, 34, and McKnight, who was Navaeah’s mother, were both charged with criminal homicide and several other counts after the infant died and her 16-month-old brother was sickened but survived when the siblings somehow ingested or came in contact with fentanyl while in their parents’ bedroom, which was strewn with drugs and paraphernalia, according to court documents.
Both initially were facing the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder, but that was recently taken off the table as investigators were unable to determine how the fentanyl got into the children’s bodies.
Washington County District Attorney Jason Walsh said they initially filed aggravating factors making it a death penalty case in order “to preserve the right to pursue it on the tight window” of the judicial timeline ahead of the formal arraignment three years ago.
“Going over all the evidence, the mitigating evidence from the defense … and looking at all of it, we came to this decision as a negotiated plea,” Walsh said of why they agreed to the plea bargain.
After the hearing, Walsh bristled with May’s suggestion that co-sleeping led to Navaeah’s death.
“Fentanyl was found in her system,” Walsh said.
May, who was shackled and wearing an orange jail jumpsuit while seated at the defense table between his attorneys Jim Jeffries and Joseph Zupancic, told Costanzo during his statement that McKnight is a “good person” and he wants the case against her to be dropped. McKnight, 26, was not at Thursday’s plea hearing for May as she is still awaiting trial on homicide and other charges unless a similar plea bargain is reached.
Shortly after Navaeah was taken by ambulance to an area hospital and pronounced dead, Canonsburg police were unable to locate May and McKnight, and neither of them attended their daughter’s funeral. The couple was found a week later at an acquaintance’s Canton Township home, hiding in an attic crawl space. Both have been held without bond at the Washington County jail while they waited for their cases to be adjudicated, and May will be given credit for time served.
During May’s statement to Costanzo, he said he wanted the court to know his deceased daughter’s name as he called Navaeah a “beautiful” little girl.
“What happened was a true accident,” he said. “I feel like I failed her.”
After the hearing, he was led away by sheriff’s deputies and taken back to the county jail before he will eventually be transported to a state prison to serve the remainder of his sentence.