Brooke Seal (Photo courtesy Outagamie County Sheriff's Office)
APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Brooke Seal was convicted Wednesday in connection with the drug overdose death of her 2-year-old daughter, as well as smuggling drugs into the county jail.
Seal, 29, pleaded no contest to neglecting a child – consequence is death, and possessing an illegal article. Sentencing is scheduled for March 24.
In January 2024, the Outagamie County Sheriff’s Office responded to a residence on Liberty Lane in the town of Freedom for a report of a child who was not breathing. First responders rendered aid to Rosalie Garcia before transporting her to a hospital, but she was pronounced dead.
Seal was arrested after toxicology reports determined Garcia died from exposure to fentanyl. It is unknown how the child accessed or ingested the drugs.
According to a criminal complaint, Seal allegedly allowed a drug dealer, Faheem Jones, to temporarily stay at her Freedom apartment.
The complaint describes Seal’s offense as “through her failure to take action, for reasons other than poverty, did negligently fail to provide protection from exposure to the distribution or manufacture of controlled substances… so as to seriously endanger the physical, mental, or emotional health of the child, and the child suffered death as a consequence.”
Jones was charged with five counts, including fentanyl possession, as part of the investigation, but he has not been charged in direct connection with Garcia’s death. He returns to court Jan. 22 for a pre-trial conference.
Jones told police he was at the building to do laundry. In the laundry room, police found a backpack with a stolen gun, ammunition, and a plastic bag with 1,414 pills which tested positive for fentanyl.
According to the complaint:
Based on the evidence located at the scene it is clear that the defendant exposed the child to Fentanyl in her bedroom and in other places in her apartment. A GooStick brand metal tray, along with three pieces of burnt foil, and dark colored plastic pen tube, which is melted on the end and contains a dark residue was located on a small stand to the left of the defendant’s bed, where the child was sleeping. This item is consistent with the type of item commonly used to smoke, or freebase, a narcotic drug. A dark colored plastic pen tube, which is melted on the end and contains a dark residue was located in a wooden bowl next to the kitchen sink. This item is consistent with the type of item commonly used to smoke, or freebase, a narcotic drug.
Seal’s phone also contained messages showing she was trying to buy fentanyl from Jones less than 10 hours before Garcia died, according to the complaint.
After her arrest for the child’s death, she was taken to the Outagamie County Jail on Jan. 31, 2024. On Feb. 5, the sheriff’s department began investigating an incident from the previous weekend, where a syringe was found in a holding cell. The material inside tested positive for fentanyl and methamphetamines, according to the criminal complaint.
Surveillance video captured Seal “reaching down behind the cell toilet, in the same location the syringe was later located,” the complaint states.
During the investigation, officials reviewed the body scans from when she was booked into the jail, and one done as part of the investigation.
“The image was granular and difficult to identify, however comparing the two images made it appear there was a difference between her first scan and a subsequent scan, which makes it appear a syringe could have been introduced into the jail in Seal’s body cavity,” the complaint states.
Capt. David Steffens of the Outagamie County Sheriff’s Office says the department reviewed the incident and determined that, due to where the syringe was found and the poor quality of the image, proper protocols were followed by staff.
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