A Ramsey County judge on Friday sentenced 33-year-old Jasmine Nicole Ryan to four years in prison after she pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter in the death of her 18-month-old son, Jackson Weidell. Court filings state that Jackson died on Dec. 25, 2024, after ingesting fentanyl in the family’s St. Paul home. Ryan will receive credit for 196 days she has already served behind bars.
The sentence follows Ryan’s October guilty plea to one count of second-degree manslaughter and the prosecutor’s presentation of evidence from the Christmas Day incident, as reported by KSTP. According to that report, Jackson’s father, 40-year-old Jeffrey Joseph Weidell, pleaded guilty to the same charge in March and is scheduled to be sentenced in July.
Scene and investigation
Officers responded to a home on the 1000 block of Fifth Street East after a report that the child was not breathing and found Ryan performing CPR, according to court records cited by Bring Me The News. Investigators reported that the residence was littered with clothing, trash, diapers and pieces of foil with suspected drug residue, and that drug paraphernalia along with traces of methamphetamine and fentanyl were found in the home and on the adults’ belongings.
Ryan told officers she had administered naloxone to Jackson before police arrived and that the child had ingested fentanyl while she was in the shower, court documents show, per KSTP. Two other children who were in the home, a preschool-aged girl and a one-month-old infant, were transferred to Ramsey County Child Protection.
Policy and legal context
Advocates and local investigators say Jackson’s death is part of a troubling statewide pattern of young children exposed to fentanyl. An investigative series documented nearly two dozen child deaths tied to fentanyl since 2020, as described by Safe Passage for Children of Minnesota. In response, lawmakers have moved to tighten penalties. Minnesota’s updated statutes include a fentanyl-related provision that makes knowingly exposing a child or vulnerable adult to fentanyl a felony punishable by up to five years, per the Revisor of Statutes…