Willful negligence or accident in infant’s breast milk fentanyl death?

WILKES-BARRE — While on a weekend vacation in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, in August 2021, Abigail Pero testified she took her mother, Jennifer Travinski, to a hospital.

Pero said she initially believed her mother, who was 23 weeks pregnant at the time, was suffering from morning sickness.

But, Pero said she learned at the hospital her mother was under the influence of an illicit drug.

The events of the beach vacation, Pero said, caused her to report her mother to Child Line, 10 days after Jennifer Travinski gave birth to Ayra, on Nov. 12, 2021. Pero said she suspected her mother was continuing to use illicit drugs.

Six days after Pero made the Child Line report, Ayra was found unresponsive inside Jennifer Travinski’s Larksville home on Nov. 27, 2021, and died the next day at Lehigh Valley Cedar Crest Hospital.

Jennifer Travinski’s trial began Monday before Luzerne County Judge David W. Lupas after a jury of six women and six men plus four alternates was selected over two days. She is charged with third-degree murder, aggravated assault and child endangerment.

First Assistant District Attorney Anthony Ross who, along with Assistant District Attorney Carly Levandoski are prosecuting, said Ayra died from adverse effects of fentanyl exposure complicating acute pneumonia.

Ross said state police investigators from Wilkes-Barre searched the Larksville home finding nearly 200 fentanyl packets.

“As a mom, she owed a duty to that little girl,” Ross said during his opening statement while pointing to a picture of Ayra on a television monitor. “As a mom, she owed a duty to protect her, to keep her safe. She failed woefully, she failed wantonly, she failed brazenly.”

Jennifer Travinski’s attorney, Demetrius Fannick, said she is responsible by being careless with having fentanyl inside the house but her husband and the father of Ayra, Gary Edward Travinski, is equally, if not more, responsible.

Fannick said the Travinski’s took turns in four hour shifts caring for Ayra.

When 911 was called when Ayra was found unresponsive, Jennifer Travinski was asleep, Fannick said.

Fannick said Ayra was born healthy at 39 weeks and was discharged from Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center about 30 hours after birth.

“The evidence will show Ayra did not die from a fentanyl overdose,” Fannick told the jury during his opening statement, noting medical tests of breast milk showed a “nanogram” of fentanyl, which he explained is one billionth of a gram.

When state police investigators searched the Larksville home, four bottles of breast milk were taken from a refrigerator.

Fannick said only one bottle had a nanogram of fentanyl.

Fannick suggested the negligence of having fentanyl inside the house with a newborn is “a far cry” from murder.

After opening statements, Levandoski called Pero as the first of what is expected to be 16 prosecution witnesses during the trial.

Pero told the jury about the beach vacation, taking her mother to a hospital and eventually learned her mother was under the influence and going through heroin withdrawal while 23 weeks pregnant.

Pero said she searched her mother’s luggage but did not find any drugs or paraphernalia. Pero returned home alone leaving her mother behind in the hospital.

After Pero learned of her half-sister’s birth, she called Child Line.

Ross told the jury Jennifer Travinski signed herself out of the Delaware hospital against medical advice and ignored hospital’s warnings about the dangers of drug use while being pregnant.

Gary Travinski entered a no contest plea to a child endangerment charge on Oct. 20. He is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 15.

Testimony in Jennifer Travinski’s trial is scheduled to continue Tuesday.