A 39-year-old Madison woman was charged with child neglect Tuesday after her 3-year-old granddaughter died this February from an overdose of the painkiller oxycodone.
According to a criminal complaint, April M. Walker is an abuser of prescription medications and told a detective, ""The thing I did wrong was I left my night meds out.""
Walker allegedly did not seek help for the child, Amaya Marie Walker, for almost six hours after she was unable to be awakened. At the time of her death, Amaya had six times the therapeutic range for oxycodone in her blood. Valium was also found in the child's system.
It is unknown how the child ingested the drugs, but the complaint states that Walker would often drop pills and not pick them up and leave pills loose in her purse.
Walker was living at YWCA, 101 E. Mifflin St., with Amaya and her 10-year-old daughter at the time of the death. Walker had been caring for Amaya for a few weeks at a time. Amaya's mother, Alicia Walker, 22, is an inmate at the John C. Burke Correctional Center in Waupun serving a sentence for forgery and probation violations.
According to a criminal complaint, an acquaintance of Walker told police that Walker had talked about not being able to care for Amaya and allegedly said, ""I just can't take it anymore,"" just a few weeks before the death. Walker's friend said Walker would often complain about Amaya not going to bed when all Walker wanted to do was sleep after taking her pills.
The complaint states that Amaya had a green discharge coming out of her nose and was unable to be woken the morning of Feb. 6. Walker carried Amaya into the YWCA lobby and told two front desk employees she was taking the child to the hospital because she believed she was having an allergic reaction. The employees told police they wanted to call 911 after seeing Amaya, saying her lips appeared purplish and she looked ""almost dead.""
However, instead of bringing Amaya to the hospital, Walker allegedly went to her mother's house, watched television and made calls about the child, finally speaking with a clinic nurse. According to the complaint, Walker left to pick up a friend and returned to find that Amaya was not breathing. Amaya died the next day after she was brought to the hospital.
