Dad who gave his baby lethal dose of Benadryl gets 15 years in prison, Georgia cops say
A Georgia dad who police say gave his 8-month-old a deadly dose of Benadryl in 2015 will spend 15 years behind bars.
In December 2015, emergency responders were called to a home in Carrollton about a baby in cardiac arrest, according to the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office. The baby, Natalia Esmerelda Jane Ro Lara, was taken to the hospital but was pronounced dead when she got there.
The baby’s death wasn’t ruled a homicide until 2017, when toxicology reports came back.
The report found Natalia had been given a lethal amount of diphenhydramine, which is an allergy medication and sleep aid found in Benadryl, the sheriff’s office says.
Natalia’s dad, 25-year-old Darius Lara, later admitted he had given the baby his girlfriend’s medication by pouring a capsule of liquid Benadryl in her mouth to get her to stop crying the night she died, the sheriff’s office says.
He was arrested and has been held in the Carroll County Jail since 2017, the sheriff’s office said.
Now, Lara has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for the death of Natalia, the sheriff’s office said Monday.
“The prison sentence received will never bring Baby Natalia back, but it will serve as justice to a very sad and tragic case of a little girl who will never get to grow up,” the sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post.
