Anna E. Raines and Jesse A. Gunn convicted in toddler’s death

Anna E. Raines and Jesse A. Gunn

The parents of a 2-year-old girl in Virginia who died after taking a variety of drugs, including fentanyl and a veterinary sedative, will spend more than a decade behind bars in 2022 for the toddler’s death. A York District Court judge ordered Anna E. Raines and Jesse A. Gunn each to serve 11 years in a state correctional facility for their roles in the little girl’s untimely death. Court records checked from Law & Crime Show.

Raines, 30, and Gunn, 38, both pleaded guilty last month to involuntary manslaughter and child abuse – contempt for life. The court then sentenced the parents to ten years each for manslaughter and five years each for child abuse, with four of the five years suspended. The sentences are to be served consecutively, one after the other, for a total of 11 years.

The duo had been charged with murder before they reached a settlement with prosecutors from the York County Commonwealth Attorney’s Office.

In addition to the prison sentence, Raines and Gunn must serve 10 years of supervision after their release.

As previously reported by Law&Crime, at approximately 9:54 a.m. on July 7, 2022, officers with the York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office responded to a residence in the 100 block of Aberfeldy Way in Kiln Creek for a report of an infant who was not breathing. After first responders arrived, emergency medical services (EMS) personnel reached the apartment and found the little girl unresponsive, authorities said. Despite life-saving measures, she was pronounced dead by paramedics at the scene around 10 a.m

Officers initially took Raines and Gunn into custody due to the circumstances in which the child was living. First responders described the house as being in “disarray.” The parents and the victim lived in a room in the home of Raines’ father, Timothy Lee Raines, a family doctor.

A paramedic on scene told investigators that the toddler appeared to have been dead for some time, as the child’s body had already begun to show pallor, meaning blood deposits after death. Additionally, one of the victim’s arms was colder than the rest of her body and she had “creases” on her face. Authorities also discovered there were piles of clothing, trash and dirty dishes, as well as an uncleaned litter box full of feces. Additionally, the victim’s crib was littered with cigarette butts, loose change and a pile of urine-soaked blankets.

Authorities later said they recovered “several used syringes as well as a plastic container of new syringes” from the bedroom, as well as capsules containing heroin, all within the toddler’s reach.

“It was specifically the area where the mother, father and baby were – in that one room,” Maj. Ron Montgomery said after the arrests last year. “The living conditions there were really bad.”

The couple was initially charged with child neglect, but that charge was upgraded after an autopsy report was received that concluded the toddler died as a result of drug and nicotine use, authorities said. The chief medical examiner’s office determined the victim’s cause of death was “an acute combined overdose of fentanyl and xylazine in addition to nicotine exposure.”

Xylazine is a veterinary sedative that is increasingly being used as a medicine Cutting substance in heroin.

While authorities initially said there was “absolutely no reason to believe” Timothy Lee Raines was to blame for his granddaughter’s death, he was arrested several weeks later and also charged with child abuse – disregard for life, records show. He is scheduled to appear in court for a status hearing on December 5.

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