Father Charged In Overdose Death Of Toddler Son Has Preliminary Hearing

A father charged in connection with the overdose death of his toddler son will face trial.

District Judge Daniel Baranoski forwarded charges including criminal homicide, possession of a controlled substance and endangering the welfare of a child on to trial after a preliminary hearing for 38-year-old Middletown resident Coco Wallace Wednesday.

Wallace’s son, 27-month-old Sebastian “Buddy” Wallace, died at Lower Bucks Hospital on October 22. Authorities allege Sebastian died from an overdose of Oxycodone.

According to forensic pathologist Dr. Ian Hood, Sebastian died from three times the amount of Oxycodone it would take to kill an average adult.

The toddler first had trouble breathing on October 22 and was taken to the Lower Bucks Hospital emergency room. Shortly after, the boy was pronounced dead and an investigation began. An autopsy was conducted the following day, where 1200 mg of Oxycodone was found in the 27-month-old boy’s system. No hospital emergency room treatment reports dictate administering the drug to Sebastian while he was in their care, according to court documents.

Wallace told investigators after being asked shortly after his son’s death that he didn’t have any pills lying around and the question “had gotten him thinking about how something could’ve gotten into Sebastian’s system.” Wallace later informed the coroner he had gotten a bag of pills from a friend. Wallace said he identified the pills after looking them up on the internet, as Oxycodone 40s, the same pill found in Sebastian’s system, according to court documents.

When police later interviewed the friend that Wallace said gave him pills, he noted that he had come to Wallace’s apartment the day before Sebastian died in an effort to exchange pills for two laptop computers. When police asked Wallace, he noted the pills had never come into the apartment, according to the affidavit of probable cause.

Later interviews with both Sebastian’s mother and Wallace’s girlfriend, revealed claims that Wallace, who worked as a promoter of erotic videos, had thrown a bag of “Oxys” worth $1,000 out of the car window onto I-95 just three days after Sebastian’s death.

As noted in court documents, Wallace told police that the women were lying before later admitting to police he was in possession of the pills. He later admitted to police he didn’t want to tell them about the pills because, “I didn’t want to bring suspicion against myself,” police said.

At a press conference last month, police said they do not believe the child ingested the drugs accidentally.

Wallace was known to have a 9-year-old daughter also living in the Foxwood Manor apartment where he resided, although she was not present during the incident. Bucks County District Attorney David Heckler noted that the girl’s welfare is being taken care of by Children and Youth.

A social media account that appeared to belong to 38-year-old Levittown resident Coco Wallace said he would “not rest” until he got an answer on how his 27-month-old son died.

“I miss you a lot have not slept for weeks. Hope you understand my lil man, daddy loved U no matter what !!” Wallace wrote on social media accounts that appeared to belong to him in the days following Sebastian’s death.

Wallace is currently in Bucks County prison without bail.