Las Vegas couple’s meth residue ingested by infant son, police say
Over the years, Crystal Girardot and Robert Sorola had apparently perfected a ritual “for a more intense” methamphetamine high.
In a process “repeated over and over,” the two would drain the water from their bong into empty plastic water bottles, wait for the water to evaporate and then smoke the residue, according to a pair of identical arrest reports. Often, the woman’s son, less than a year old, would be in the bedroom with them, the reports said.
That routine, Las Vegas police detectives now suspect, landed Girardot’s son at University Medical Center on Aug. 2 with meth in his system. By the time he arrived at the hospital, after a frantic 911 call and failed CPR efforts, the boy was unresponsive and “void of response to stimuli,” doctors told police, according to the reports.
In the conclusion of the reports, detectives wrote that the ingestion occurred due to “co-mingling the paraphernalia and methamphetamine with items used to feed and care for Crystal’s 11 month old child, such as sippy cups, oatmeal, water.”
Girardot, 35, and Sorola, 31, were arrested the same day. Each faces charges of child abuse and the use of a controlled substance in the presence of a child — both resulting in substantial bodily harm, court records show.
The infant’s condition was not known Tuesday, but at the time of the arrests, the boy had been admitted to the medical center’s intensive care unit in critical condition.
The reports show that the couple, in separate interviews, both admitted to smoking meth just hours before the boy’s hospitalization and placing a bottle filled with the drained water on a dresser before going to sleep.
Sorola woke up around 5:30 a.m. and fed the boy oatmeal and gave him juice in a sippy cup — both of which were prepared with bottled water. But Sorola maintained in his interview with police that he used an unopened water bottle, making sure to listen for the crack of the seal breaking.
By about 6:40 a.m., Girardot said, she was woken up by the boy, who was “twitching and shaking” and bleeding from the mouth, according to the report. Sorola called 911 minutes later.
After the infant was rushed to the hospital, one of the couple’s roommates told detectives that the two frequently smoked meth in front of the child “in the (bedroom) with the door shut.”
They remain in custody at the Clark County Detention Center awaiting their preliminary hearing on Sept. 9 in Las Vegas Justice Court, records show.
Contact Rio Lacanlale at rlacanlale@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @riolacanlale on Twitter.