An 8-year-old boy from Indiana is dead after he mistook his father’s methamphetamine for cereal and ate enough to kill 180 people.
Curtis Collman III, of Seymour Indiana, had 18,000 nanograms of methamphetamine in his bloodstream when he died June 21, Jackson County Detective Tom Barker told the Seymour Tribune.
A lethal amount is 100 nanograms.
"It kind of hits home if you have kids." A toxicology report says an 8-year-old Curtis Collman III had more than 180 times the lethal limit of methamphetamine in his bloodstream when he died. https://t.co/WvHQLmmvcg
— NBC4 Columbus (@nbc4i) August 3, 2018
It is not clear how much meth the child actually ate before he died. “We don’t know that answer, but it’s a lot,” Detective Barker said.
The drugs were left out on a plate at his father’s house, where the pair was staying. Police believe the child ate several grams.
The boy’s father, Curtis Gilbert Collman ll, was arrested and was charged with neglect of a dependent causing death, a Level 1 felony punishable by 20 to 40 years in prison with an advisory sentence of 30 years upon conviction, the Tribune reported.
Father Denied Son Medical Help
According to police records, Collman ll and his son had spent the night of June 20 at Collman lll’s house in Seymour.
The child woke early, found a plate on the table, and began eating, eventually consuming many times the lethal dose of methamphetamine. WAVE reported that Curtis III thought the drugs were breakfast cereal.
Because the drug did not take effect immediately, Curtis III did not know he was eating a highly toxic substance.
Fox News reported that according to court records, Curtis woke up his father asking for food, but Collman II said they didn’t have any food and went back to sleep.
Curtis Collman ll called a female friend around 10 a.m. on June 21, saying he needed help because his son was “not acting right.” He was “twitching and bouncing his face off the floor,” the father said, reported Fox, still citing court records.
The woman arrived at the Collman residence around 10:50 a.m. When she saw Curtis III, she told his father that they needed to call 911.
The woman told police that rather than let her call for help, Collman grabbed the phone away from her. He left the room and came back with a pistol, which he pointed at her.
Collman told the woman, “I’m not going back to prison,” then threatened to kill her, his son, and himself, the woman told police.
Collman II, 41, had prior convictions for trafficking and sexual misconduct with a minor. He spent three years in jail on the later charge.
About an hour after the woman fled, Collman drove his son to the home of his parents in Crothersville, the Seymour Tribune reported. When he arrived, his mother and another person both said he needed to call 911. Collman again refused.
WAVE reported that while at his grandparent’s house, Curtis III began to turn blue and his father tried to perform CPR, but still rejected the idea of calling for help.
When the man at his mother’s house did call 911, Collman fled the residence, leaving his suffering son behind.
Jackson County Emergency Medical Service and other first responders transported the boy to Schneck Medical Center in Seymour, where he died at 2:43 p.m. of a methamphetamine overdose.
You have an 8-year-old child that most likely suffered for many hours,” Detective Barker told WAVE. “It upsets you.”
Father Pleads for Reduced Bond
Police eventually caught Curtis Collman II around 7 p.m. July 21 and arrested him for failing to register as a sex offender when he switched addresses. He was later charged with neglect of a dependent resulting in death, pointing a firearm, intimidation, possession of methamphetamine, and theft.
Collman’s bond was originally set at $50,000. At his bond hearing on Aug. 2, the 41-year-old ex-convict pleaded for a reduced bond, so he could spend time at home with his parents while awaiting trial.
According to the Seymour Times, Judge Richard W. Poynter took his request under advisement.
Collman’s trial is scheduled for Dec. 4.
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