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Vianney Alyssa Acosta (El Paso County Jail).
A Texas aunt was arrested after her 1-year-old nephew smoked out of her marijuana vape pen, Lone Star State law enforcement say.
Vianney Alyssa Acosta, 20, stands accused of one count each of possession of a controlled substance and child endangerment, according to the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office.
It is unclear exactly how much marijuana the child allegedly ingested.
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On May 16, sheriff’s deputies were called by emergency personnel with the fire department to a house on Walker Post Avenue in far-out east El Paso for a 1-year-old boy who was having trouble breathing after “smoking a THC vape,” according to a criminal complaint obtained by El Paso-based NBC affiliate KTSM and the El Paso Times.
The boy was relentlessly crying and “had droopy eyes and was trying to go to sleep,” when deputies arrived, according to the affidavit.
The adults at the scene quickly relayed the relevant details.
The toddler’s father, grandmother and aunt, Acosta, were all at home while his mother was at work on the day in question.
The grandmother said that when she went to the bathroom, Acosta heard the child coughing and followed the sound to her bedroom, where she found him holding the vape, according to the affidavit.
The grandmother then allegedly apprised the deputies that the vape contained “weed” and belonged to Acosta. When pressed as to whether she knew the younger woman used THC vape pens, the older woman allegedly replied in the affirmative and added: “Well she’s 20.”
Asked to account for the incident, Acosta allegedly “right away stated that she had her THC vape somewhere in her room where she thought the victim couldn’t reach it,” a deputy wrote in the court document.
The defendant then allegedly walked deputies to her room and showed them a nightstand where she kept her vape.
Investigators described the nightstand as roughly two feet tall. Acosta allegedly went on to say her nephew “has ways to get on the bed to reach out for things” and that the vape “was out in the open with just miscellaneous items on top covering it,” according to the affidavit.
The defendant, for her part, said she did not see the toddler use the pen but assumed he did because “he was red; coughing and observed a little bit of smoke” which are “side effects of using THC vapes,” according to the court document. Asked to describe the side effects of a TCH vape again, the defendant allegedly told deputies: “It makes you cough because it burns your throat.”
Acosta also allegedly said she believed her vape had not been charged up and was out of the illicit substance it allegedly contains.
During an interview, the boy’s father, with his son in hand, allegedly said he was “not aware of the incident” because he was in the garage working on his car until he saw a deputy’s patrol car arrive outside his residence. At the time of the father’s interview, a deputy described the toddler as having “glassy eyes” and said he “appeared to be lethargic,” according to the affidavit.
The boy’s father added that, after authorities arrived, the grandmother told him his son “hit a vape pen.”
Along with the boy’s father, deputies took the child to The Hospitals of Providence East for a urine sample, which tested positive for the presence of THC, authorities allege.
Acosta was arrested on May 21 and booked at the El Paso County Jail. She was released later that same day on $6,000 bond.
