Background: News footage of Adam Canales outside a Lubbock County courtroom (KCBD). Adam Canales (Lubbock County Sheriff’s Office).
A Texas man was found guilty of manslaughter after he admitted to repeatedly giving his 2-month-old daughter Benadryl to make her sleep. The final dose killed her.
Adam Canales, 33, was arrested along with his wife, Sarah Canales, 25, in January 2022, months after their 2-month-old daughter died of “mixed drug toxicity,” according to an autopsy report. As Law&Crime previously reported, Adam Canales admitted to police that he gave Benadryl to his infant daughter even though “he knows you aren’t supposed to give Benadryl to infants and that it makes you go to sleep.”
During the trial, Lubbock County District Attorney Sunshine Stanek stated that Adam Canales wanted his daughter to go to sleep so he could have “quality time” with his wife.
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According to court records obtained by local CBS affiliate KLBK, both parents admitted to giving the baby various medications, including Benadryl, ZzzQuil, and dextromethorphan, a children’s multi-symptom cold medicine. Stanek told the court that to get their baby to sleep, “[t]hey dosed her,” something they allegedly did regularly.
Adam Canales’ defense attorney, Kristopher Mincey, argued that the couple had not been communicating that day regarding who was giving the baby medications and when. Local NBC affiliate KCBD reported that the defense argued to the jury that there was “a lot going on in the home at the time” on the day that the baby was found unresponsive.
At the time, the Lubbock County Sheriff’s Office said that on July 11, 2011, deputies arrived at the Canales’ home just after 4:00 p.m. and found the baby “not breathing.” An ambulance had already been called. Adam Canales was watching his daughter while his wife was away. He told deputies that he “fed and swaddled the baby” three hours earlier and put her in a rocker while he took a nap on the couch.
When he woke up, she was not breathing. Deputies found the baby dead when they arrived.
Adam Canales now faces sentencing by a jury. Sarah Canales was also charged with manslaughter and her trial is pending.
