FDLE Task Force Charges Miami-Dade Mother in Toddler Fentanyl Death

Agents with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's South Florida S.A.F.E. Task Force, working with the Miami Police Department, arrested a Miami-Dade woman this month on a charge of aggravated manslaughter of a child in connection with the death of her 18-month-old son. According to FDLE, Pearlandria Boujolly, 29, was taken into custody at her residence and transported to the Turner Guilford Knight Detention Center in West Miami-Dade.

She is charged with one count of aggravated manslaughter of a child under 18 years old. She has not been convicted, and the allegations described in the arrest warrant have not been tested in court.

The case reflects a category of prosecution that Florida law enforcement agencies have pursued with increasing frequency: pediatric deaths involving accidental exposure to fentanyl in a household setting, charged under statutes that address culpable negligence rather than intent to harm.

What investigators allege

According to FDLE, the incident occurred on Sunday, January 3, 2026, when at approximately 3:50 a.m. the City of Miami Police Department and Miami Fire Rescue responded to a report of an unresponsive male infant. The child was transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital and was pronounced deceased a short time later.

The Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner's Department conducted an autopsy that, according to the agency, revealed the presence of fentanyl and a trace amount of cocaine in the child's blood. That finding is what converted a death investigation into a criminal one.

FDLE's investigation, according to the agency, determined that narcotics had been left in an unlocked room in the residence where the child was found, and that the child accidentally ingested a small amount of the drugs stored there. The arrest warrant states that four children ranging in age from one to eight years old were inside the home at the time, and that three unsecured firearms were also present.

The gap between the January incident and the August arrest reflects the normal timeline for a case of this kind. Toxicology results take weeks, medical examiner determinations follow, and investigators must establish the chain of events and the question of culpability before a warrant is sought.

What the charge means

Aggravated manslaughter of a child is a first-degree felony under Florida law. It does not require proof that a defendant intended for a child to die. It requires proof of culpable negligence, a standard higher than ordinary carelessness, involving conduct that a reasonable person would recognize as creating a substantial risk of death or serious injury.

The distinction from murder charges is the absence of intent, and the distinction from lesser neglect charges is the death of the child. Under Florida sentencing guidelines, a first-degree felony carries a maximum term of 30 years, though the sentence actually imposed depends on scoresheet calculations, criminal history and judicial discretion.

The defense in cases of this type generally contests whether the conduct rose to culpable negligence rather than disputing the underlying facts. The legal question is where the line falls between a tragic accident and criminal culpability, and it is decided case by case.

All of this remains prospective. Boujolly is presumed innocent, is entitled to counsel and has not entered a plea in any proceeding described publicly.

The fentanyl context in Florida

Fentanyl potency is what makes household exposure lethal in a way that older opioids generally were not. The drug is active at doses measured in micrograms, meaning a quantity too small to be noticed by an adult can be fatal to a small child. Residue on a surface or a fragment of a pill can be sufficient.

Florida has recorded substantial fentanyl-involved mortality over the past several years, and pediatric exposure cases, while a small fraction of the total, have drawn particular attention from prosecutors and state agencies. The FDLE S.A.F.E. Task Force operates in South Florida with a mandate that includes investigations of this type.

The state has also increased penalties for fentanyl trafficking and for distribution resulting in death. Those statutes generally target the supply side, while cases involving a caregiver and a child in the home proceed under the negligence and neglect framework instead.

Public health officials have emphasized naloxone availability as the intervention most likely to prevent deaths after exposure. Naloxone reverses opioid overdose and can be administered by a bystander, and it is available in Florida without a prescription.

What it means for Floridians

The practical significance for households is the storage question. The allegations in this case center on drugs in an unlocked room and firearms left unsecured in a residence where four young children lived, and both conditions carry independent legal exposure in Florida.

Florida law addresses firearm storage where minors are present, and unsecured weapons in a home with children create criminal liability separate from any drug allegation. The arrest warrant's reference to three unsecured firearms is a detail that carries weight independent of the manslaughter charge.

For families and caregivers who suspect a child has been exposed to an opioid, the guidance is immediate: call 911 and administer naloxone if available. Florida's Good Samaritan provisions offer certain protections to people who seek medical help during an overdose, which is designed to remove hesitation about calling for help.

Local impact across the state

Miami-Dade County has the largest child welfare caseload in Florida, and the Department of Children and Families becomes involved in any household where a child dies and other children remain. Those proceedings run in dependency court, separate from the criminal case, and are generally confidential.

Similar prosecutions have been brought in Hillsborough, Orange, Duval and Polk counties in recent years, reflecting a statewide pattern rather than a South Florida phenomenon. State attorneys have generally treated pediatric fentanyl deaths as chargeable rather than accidental when investigators establish that drugs were accessible to a child.

County health departments across Florida distribute naloxone and provide guidance on securing medications and drugs in homes with children. Those programs are the primary prevention mechanism operating alongside enforcement.

How these investigations are built

A pediatric death investigation begins as a medical matter rather than a criminal one. Emergency responders and hospital staff document the scene and the child's condition, and the medical examiner assumes responsibility for determining cause and manner of death.

Toxicology is the step that determines whether a criminal investigation follows. Testing takes weeks and is performed on samples collected during autopsy, and until those results return, investigators generally cannot distinguish between a natural death, an accident and a criminally negligent one.

Once toxicology identifies a controlled substance, investigators reconstruct access. That means establishing where the drugs were stored, who had control of that space, who was present and whether the arrangement created a foreseeable risk to a child. Search warrants, interviews and scene documentation build that record.

The elapsed time between the January incident and the August arrest reflects each of those stages running in sequence. Cases of this kind are rarely charged quickly, and a delay of several months is typical rather than unusual.

The task force structure

The South Florida S.A.F.E. Task Force operates as a multi-agency unit under FDLE, combining state agents with officers from participating local departments. That structure allows an investigation to draw on state forensic and analytical resources while retaining local knowledge and jurisdiction.

Task forces of this type exist across Florida and are organized around specific problem areas including narcotics, crimes against children, human trafficking and violent offender apprehension. The model addresses a practical limitation: individual municipal departments often lack the specialized capacity a complex investigation requires.

FDLE also operates the state's crime laboratory system, which performs the forensic analysis that cases like this depend on. Laboratory capacity and turnaround time are recurring subjects in legislative budget discussions, since backlogs directly extend how long investigations take.

In this case, the Miami Police Department participated in the arrest alongside task force agents, reflecting the standard practice of the agency with local jurisdiction being present when a warrant is served in its territory.

How Florida law treats child neglect

Florida law provides a graduated set of offenses covering conduct that endangers children, and the applicable charge depends on the outcome and on the degree of culpability established. Child neglect without great bodily harm is a third-degree felony; neglect causing great bodily harm or death carries substantially greater exposure.

Aggravated manslaughter of a child sits at the more serious end of that framework because a death occurred. The statute reaches caregivers whose culpable negligence results in the death of a child under 18, and it does not require any intent to cause harm.

Prosecutors weigh several factors when selecting among available charges: whether the conduct was a single lapse or a sustained condition, whether prior warnings or interventions occurred, and whether other children were placed at similar risk. The presence of four children and multiple unsecured firearms, as described in the arrest warrant, speaks to the sustained-condition question.

Defense arguments in these cases typically emphasize that the outcome was unforeseen and that ordinary parental lapses should not be criminalized. Where the line falls between a tragic accident and criminal negligence is the question that these prosecutions ultimately put to a court.

What is next

The case proceeds through the Miami-Dade criminal division. The State Attorney for the Eleventh Judicial Circuit will decide what charges to file formally, which can differ from the charge at arrest, and arraignment follows the filing decision.

Pretrial proceedings in cases of this type typically extend for months, with defense motions addressing the sufficiency of the culpable negligence allegation and the admissibility of the medical examiner's findings. A resolution by plea is statistically more common than a trial.

The dependency proceedings involving the surviving children are running on a separate track with their own timeline. Those matters are handled confidentially, and their outcome will not be publicly reported in the way the criminal case will be.