SF DA Charges Couple With Murder in Toddler's Fentanyl Death

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins charged Michelle Price, 38, and her boyfriend Steve Ramirez, 43, with second-degree murder Wednesday over the fentanyl overdose death of their two-year-old daughter Stevie. It’s the first time San Francisco has filed a murder charge tied to a child’s fentanyl death.

Stevie died February 12 at a residence on the 3800 block of 18th Street. Police got a 911 call at around 5:16 a.m. reporting a child who wasn’t breathing. Medics arrived and pronounced Stevie dead at the scene. She’d likely been dead for several hours, they determined, based on signs of rigor mortis and lividity, the bluish-purple discoloration that develops after circulation stops.

What officers found inside didn’t happen by accident. Court documents describe the apartment as a “hoarder house” filled with drug paraphernalia: three used cylindrical pipes, lighters, torches. A used Narcan container and a white powder later confirmed as fentanyl were on the bed. Bottles of spoiled milk were there too.

Price and Ramirez weren’t strangers to the system by the time Stevie died. As SFist reported, Stevie was born with fentanyl in her system and spent months in intensive care after birth. Officers with the San Francisco Police Department later observed what they described as extreme abscesses on Ramirez’s legs from fentanyl use. He was arrested on out-of-county warrants 11 days after Stevie was born. At least four Child Protective Services cases had been opened against Price before Stevie’s death. Two were still active when she died, both involving neglect allegations. A third had already been substantiated as neglect. A fourth, deemed inconclusive, alleged unsafe living conditions, drug exposure, and failure to supervise Stevie and another child “despite repeated intervention.”

Jenkins said both defendants were initially arrested on felony child endangerment and drug possession charges after Stevie’s death. Ramirez faced additional counts for possession of drug paraphernalia and resisting a peace officer. Prosecutors objected to their release. It didn’t matter. Price walked out February 19. Ramirez followed on February 24.

The murder charges announced Wednesday are the upgraded counts. They include allegations that Price and Ramirez willfully caused harm or injury resulting in Stevie’s death, not just that they failed to prevent it. That framing matters legally and it’s what separates this case from prior San Francisco filings in fentanyl-related child deaths.

“We won’t allow parents to expose children to fentanyl and walk away without facing murder charges when that child dies,” Jenkins said in announcing the charges, according to the DA’s office.

Jenkins has made clear that child deaths tied to fentanyl exposure don’t get treated as tragic accidents under her watch. That’s a shift for San Francisco. Whether it holds up in court is a question for 2026 juries, not press conferences.

It’s not established whether Ramirez is Stevie’s biological father. Jenkins’ office refers to Price as Stevie’s mother and to Price and Ramirez as a couple. Prior CPS reports also identified them that way.

Stevie was 24 months old.