Springdale mom heads to prison in methadone death of daughter, 5

The prosecutor handling the case of a 5-year-old who died from methadone poisoning told the court that there were two unanswered questions.

Why was there methadone in Samantha McMunn’s Springdale house on the day her daughter died?

And how did it get into her baby syringe?

“I just think it’s very unlikely that a 5-year-old girl would find methadone in this house that’s not even supposed to be there and then put it into syringes, and it ends up in her body where she overdoses,” Allegheny County Deputy District Attorney Jennifer DiGiovanni said Wednesday.

“There’s still some mysteries in this case that we will never know,” she continued. “There should not have been methadone in that house on Tuesday morning.”

McMunn, 34, was ordered on Wednesday to serve 1 1/2 to 5 years in prison to be followed by 3 years probation.

She pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Anthony M. Mariani on Jan. 25.

Police were called to McMunn’s home on Duquesne Court at 8:44 a.m. on June 13.

They found 5-year-old Diem McMunn-Gereshenski unresponsive. She died a short time later at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh from methadone toxicity.

McMunn was in drug rehabilitation at the time and required daily methadone, a synthetic narcotic used to treat opioid addiction.

The week before Diem died, DiGiovanni told the court, McMunn went to the clinic each day to get her methadone.

But on Friday, June 9, she received two extra doses of the liquid medication for the weekend.

McMunn told investigators she took her doses on Saturday and Sunday.

“She describes on Monday morning taking the two empty vials to the methadone clinic and getting her dose from [staff] at the window,” DiGiovanni said.

And then Diem received “a rather massive overdose” on Tuesday morning.

While DiGiovanni acknowledged that McMunn admitted the methadone was hers, she said, “the fact remains, it should not have been there, and this was entirely, completely, 100% preventable.”

At Wednesday’s sentencing, McMunn’s boyfriend of 10 years, Joshua Gereshenski, testified on her behalf.

“I know the tragedy of what happened to our daughter, but other than that, she’s been doing extremely well, as far as staying clean,” he said.

He told the court that McMunn is being weaned off methadone.

“She’s been doing everything right, everything that she’s supposed to be doing,” he said.

McMunn, too, told the court she was sorry and taking steps to ensure something like this doesn’t happen again.

Defense attorney Sarah McGuire asked the court to give her client a sentence of probation with electronic home monitoring.

“A child is dead because of your client’s conduct,” Judge Mariani responded.

“The word ‘relapse’ to me, I’ve never accepted relapse to explain the decision to commit a crime. That’s not a relapse. That’s a conscious choice to decide, ‘I’m going to not do what’s right. … And I’m going to store my methadone so I can use heroin instead and make it look like I’m doing the treatment I’m supposed to be doing.’”

McGuire said that McMunn is going through a program to get completely off methadone.

“Things are different this time, your honor,” the attorney said.

But Mariani was not swayed, noting McMunn’s history of drug use and repeated drug charges.

“Her conduct led directly to the death of her child,” he said.