S.F. parents whose 2-year-old died from suspected fentanyl overdose charged with murder

Prosecutors have charged the parents of a 2-year-old San Francisco girl with murder after the toddler allegedly ingested fentanyl left within her reach, marking a first-of-its kind case for a district attorney who vowed to seek maximum penalties against those who supply the drugs that cause fatal overdoses.

The charges against Michelle Price and Steve Ramirez were tacked onto existing child endangerment cases against the parents, which prosecutors filed shortly after Stevie Price's overnight death on Feb. 12.

District Attorney Brooke Jenkins told the Chronicle Wednesday that the murder counts were added after further investigation indicated the parents were "fully aware of the dangers of fentanyl."

Prosecutors said the girl had been hospitalized for months after being born with the drug in her system, and that her parents had allegedly kept Narcan in their Mission Dolores apartment, suggesting they feared someone in the house could overdose.

"There's no question that they understood its lethality, that they understood the harm it had caused this child when she was born," Jenkins said. "Still, (they) made a choice to continue to expose her to it, and expose her in grave and consistent ways."

Defense attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Court documents filed this week also shed new light on the extent of Price and Ramirez's alleged drug use was previously known to authorities, raising questions as to whether more could have been done to prevent the child's death.

The Chronicle reported last month on police and prosecutor records stating that child protective services had investigated reports of neglect or unsafe living situations for Stevie and another child in Price's custody on at least four occasions. Neglect cases involving Stevie were still open when she died, prosecutors said. After Stevie's death, CPS officials also told police that Stevie had been born with drugs in her system, according to police.

In their Monday motion to add new charges, prosecutors said that Stevie had been treated in intensive care for several months after her March 1, 2023 birth, due to problems related to Price's use of fentanyl and methamphetamine while pregnant.

The document additionally stated that when Ramirez was arrested for out-of-county warrants 11 days after Stevie's birth, San Francisco police noted "extreme abscesses" on the father's legs, which he attributed to fentanyl use.

Ramirez allegedly told police at the time that both he and his girlfriend were "hooked" on fentanyl, and that the woman had wanted him to "bring her dope" while she was sick in the hospital.

It was not immediately clear from the records when Stevie was released from the NICU or whether the parents were subject to any official supervision after they left the hospital. The Chronicle previously reported that police who responded to Stevie's death described the apartment as a "hoarder house," seizing glass pipes and suspected fentanyl powder alongside infant formula, a pacifier and bottles of solidified milk.

Officials with the San Francisco Human Services Agency - the department that oversees child protective services - pointed to federal guidance that states that an infant's positive toxicology report following delivery "is not in and of itself a sufficient basis for reporting child abuse or neglect."

It does, however, set in motion a series of steps health care professionals and child welfare agents take to ensure the child's safety. This includes an assessment of the risk of the newborn when they're taken home and identifying any services or interventions that may be needed.

It was not immediately clear what steps were taken in Stevie's case, as San Francisco HSA Executive Director Trent Rhorer said privacy laws prevented him from discussing specific details. Rhorer did, however, explain the general role of child welfare agents in when a child is born with drugs in their system, which he said is not uncommon.

Rhorer said a baby's birth can often be a triggering event that motivates the mother to enter recovery.

If the mother shows an interest in parenting, bonding and accepting treatment, he said, CPS will commonly create a plan that involves residential treatment, substance abuse testing and continuous, court-ordered monitoring that involves monthly child welfare visits.

If agents were to find drugs or drug paraphernalia in the home, or if the mother tested positive for illegal drugs, Rhorer said it would most likely be grounds for removing the child from her custody.

"The child's safety is always paramount," he said. "But within that number one goal, keeping a family intact is also a driver."

Rhorer added that in San Francisco, every child death case - regardless of whether there was CPS involvement - received a thorough death review, conducted by multiple agencies including HSA, department of public health, hospitals and law enforcement.

San Francisco police responded to a 911 call from an apartment on the 3800 block of 18th Street at about 5:30 a.m. on Feb. 12 after receiving a report that a child wasn't breathing, according to court records.

Paramedics who also responded to the scene noted signs of rigor mortis, prosecutors said, "indicating the child had been dead for several hours."

Prosecutors described the apartment as "filthy and in extreme disarray;" scattered with drug paraphernalia including pipes, lighters and small torches. On the bed, officers said they found a white powder that they later identified as fentanyl. They also recovered a used container for Narcan, an over-the-counter drug used to reverse an opioid overdose.

Prosecutors had previously asked that a judge keep Price in jail while she awaits trial, and criticized a magistrate judge that ordered her release after she was arrested in February. The pair's next hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

"A two-year-old child was found deceased in a residence saturated with fentanyl, drug paraphernalia and extreme filth, and the magistrate was aware that open CPS cases existed involving ongoing neglect of this very child," Assistant District Attorney Leigh Frazier wrote in the Feb. 14 motion. "Prior CPS supervision, formal interventions, and monitoring failed to prevent continued neglect, ongoing drug use in the residence, and ultimately the death of the child."

A Chronicle review of data collected by the city's medical examiner's office showed only one child under the age of 15 - a 14-year-old girl - died of an accidental overdose between 2020 and 2025. A baby was hospitalized last year following a suspected fentanyl overdose on Treasure Island, and two people were charged with child endangerment.

Elsewhere in the Bay Area, babies and young children have died from fentanyl exposure over the last several years, including two in Santa Rosa, and two in San Jose. Some of the parents involved in these cases were charged with murder, as was a dealer who allegedly supplied drugs to the parents in both separate San Jose cases.

Jenkins has long treated fentanyl crimes as a centerpiece of her administration, arguing that the potency and devastation wrought by the drug's epidemic warranted a commensurate response. Early in her tenure, in 2022, Jenkins said she would consider charging drug dealers with murder if their wares were linked to an overdose death, but to date no such charges have been filed.

In her Wednesday interview, Jenkins said she's applying the same general logic to the case against Stevie's parents.

"While they obviously were not dealers to this child, (they) put this child around fentanyl, and ultimately that fentanyl led to her death," she said. "In that sense, I do think that this falls within that commitment that I made to hold people accountable who expose others to this harmful drug."

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This story was originally published April 15, 2026 at 7:19 PM.