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SALT LAKE CITY — A Las Vegas woman is facing criminal charges after her 11-year-old son died in a Salt Lake hotel room of fentanyl toxicity while they were in Utah in 2020.
Kara Ann Taylor, 37, was charged Wednesday in 3rd District Court with endangerment of a vulnerable child resulting in death, a first-degree felony, and two counts of obstructing justice, a second-degree felony.
Also Wednesday, Anthonee Derosier, 27, of Erda, was charged in the case with obstruction of justice, a second-degree felony.
On April 18, 2020, Taylor called the front desk of the Red Lion Hotel, 161 W. 600 South, saying her son was dead in one of the rooms, according to charging documents. The desk then called 911. The body of Malikai Bangura, 11, was found on a sofa.
"When officers arrived, they observed the child lying on a fold out couch. He was stiff and cold to the touch and had purpling skin, suggesting that he had been deceased for a substantial amount of time," the charges state.
Detectives searched the room and the adjoining suite and found drug paraphernalia, according to the charges. The boy's fingerprints were found on some of the paraphernalia.
Taylor told police that she, her son and Derosier — whom she referred to as a "babysitter" — had been staying at the hotel for a couple of days. She claimed she had left the hotel the previous evening sometime between 5:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. and returned between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. the next morning. Investigators say video from surveillance cameras shows her returning to the hotel about 3 a.m., the court documents say. She claimed she stayed up talking to Derosier until 7:30 a.m. and did not find her son deceased until about 10 a.m.
Derosier told police he left the hotel about 11:30 p.m. on April 17, 2020, and returned about 3 a.m. the next morning.
An autopsy conducted on Malikai "revealed that he had significant pulmonary edema and foam in his airway, indicative of a possible drug overdose" and found fentanyl metabolites in his blood. The medical examiner "concluded that Malikai's death resulted from acute fentanyl toxicity," according to the charges.
When questioned again, Taylor claimed Derosier "may have provided Malikai with drugs or left some drugs out, which Malikai accessed," the charges say. Derosier allegedly told police, however, that he observed Taylor with fentanyl pills and told her "not to have the pills out around her child."
Detectives said they also discovered texts between Taylor and Derosier discussing buying fentanyl. Police also believe Taylor tried to remove a bag from the hotel room when officers first arrived that contained fentanyl and heroin.
"Although she asserted that the bag belonged to (Derosier), surveillance video obtained from the hotel showed the defendant in possession of the bag on multiple occasions over the previous night," the charges state.
