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Hearings begin for couple accused of letting infant die of fentanyl

BY BROOKE NEVINS brooke.nevins@gazette.com

Prosecutors on Wednesday called seven witnesses on the first day of preliminary hearings for a couple accused of allowing their 15-month-old child to die from ingesting fentanyl.

Joenny Manuel Astacio Ottenwalder, 36, and Kira Lee Villalba, 29, were charged in June with one count of reckless child abuse causing death and three counts of controlled substance possession.

The couple also faces six allegations in a new case filed against them in July, including reckless child abuse causing serious bodily injury, contributing to delinquency, and controlled substance distribution to a minor after they allegedly sold drugs on multiple occasions to a 13-yearold girl. She overdosed twice and survived.

Ottenwalder’s and Villalba’s preliminary hearings regarding the death of their child and their alleged involvement in the 13-year-old’s overdoses were held together.

On Nov. 12, Ottenwalder and Villalba found their infant son Cairo Astacio dead, according to arrest records. Detectives received a search warrant for the couple’s home that same day and found significant amounts of drug paraphernalia there, which they later determined was heroin, cocaine, marijuana and a

fourth substance, fentanyl, that had been redacted from the affidavit but was revealed in court Wednesday.

Police said Ottenwalder and Villalba were under the influence of fentanyl when Cairo Astacio died, and that there was such a high volume of items received that detectives were unable to test everything, records show.

El Paso County Coroner Dr. Leon Kelly, a witness for the prosecution, said Cairo Astacio’s death was an “accident” caused by “fentanyl intoxication.”

Kelly said Cairo Astacio’s autopsy and toxicology screening revealed he had nearly 25 nanograms per milliliter of fentanyl — more than “eight times” the lowest lethal amount for an adult — in his body.

The coroner said there was “little to zero chance” that the child could have overdosed via a “secondhand” kind of exposure, as defense attorneys suggested, and that the infant had almost certainly ingested a fentanyl pill, causing his death.

The couple’s substance-abuse issues were not new or unknown to authorities at the time of the incident. The affidavit states that the local Department of Human Services had been notified about the couple on three instances before their son’s death.

The first referral came two days after Cairo Astacio was born in September 2020, alleging Villalba used heroin and methamphetamines during her pregnancy, as late as her second trimester.

The second referrals arrived the next month and again alleged substance and emotional abuse by Villalba and Ottenwalder, who was claimed to be a drug dealer, and that the couple was not consistently bringing Cairo Astacio in for physician visits, and when they did, they arrived “over an hour late” for appointments.

Because Cairo Astacio’s death is an open case, El Paso County Department of Human Services spokeswoman Kristina Iodice said last month she could not provide information about whether the department had assigned Ottenwalder and Villalba a case manager to provide a safer living environment for the child.

The couple also faces separate child abuse and controlled substance charges after a 13-year-old girl overdosed twice, according to an affidavit. The record said Ottenwalder began selling drugs — since identified in court as fentanyl — to the victim in late 2021.

Records show the couple was with the victim during her first overdose on Dec. 19 and told police they had found her “on the side of the road” before calling 911. The victim later told detectives she had been smoking fentanyl in the car with the couple when she overdosed.

Michael Ilizaliturri, an officer with the Colorado Springs Police Department, said he responded to the call on Dec. 19 to find the victim lying on the ground outside the car, and that he believed the victim had been inside the car at one point because of the open door above her.

Ilizaliturri said Villalba, who called 911 anonymously, refused to identify herself and the victim to police because of CSPD’S involvement in the investigation of her child’s death two months earlier.

The affidavit states that the victim was “brought back to life from the brink of death.”

Court records show the victim contacted Ottenwalder to request drugs the day after her overdose, Dec. 20, and that despite warning her of the drug’s danger, Ottenwalder sold her five pills for $50. During the hearing, a detective said the victim expressed no doubt that Ottenwalder and Villalba were the ones to provide her with the drug.

The detective said one example of evidence was a series of texts between the parties that included “blue circle emojis” representing blue fentanyl pills.

The same girl overdosed again Feb. 11 and was revived at the Children’s Hospital Colorado in Colorado Springs.

Other witnesses included patrol officers tasked with collecting drug paraphernalia from the house in which Cairo Astacio died, detectives with the CSPD Vice, Narcotics and Intelligence Division, a chemist with the CSPD, and an expert with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

Because a final witness was not able to testify Wednesday due to time constraints, the hearings have been set to continue Aug. 26, when Judge Laura Findorff is expected to rule whether the prosecution has established probable cause to keep the case moving in court.

Ottenwalder and Villalba are being held in El Paso County jail on bond — Ottenwalder on a $200,000 bond and Villalba on a $100,000 bond.

Court records show that an additional bond of $250,000 has been set for them in the new case regarding the 13-year-old girl.

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