Mother pleads no contest to child neglect in toddler’s fentanyl death

GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) - A Green Bay woman changed her plea and will be sentenced in November for her toddler’s death from a fentanyl overdose.

In May 2022, police and paramedics responded to a call of a child that wasn’t breathing. They found Tyana Putzlocker attempting CPR on her 18-month-old son, but the child was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Putzlocker, 23, pleaded no contest to child neglect where the consequence is death. The felony carries up to 25 years in prison. She initially pleaded not guilty to the charge in Brown County Circuit Court.

She’ll be sentenced on November 20.

The child’s father, Derrick Young Jr., pleaded not guilty to the same child neglect charge and will have a pre-trial hearing next month.

According to the criminal complaint, Child Protective Services put Putzlocker’s baby and toddler in the grandparents’ care six months earlier after drug agents found the children in a room with narcotics, guns, and what they believed was fentanyl on the floor.

The day the 18-month-old died, the grandmother took the boys to Putzlocker’s house. The grandmother said she left the home when everyone decided to take a nap. She told investigators she didn’t believe her son would do drugs around the children.