April 17 (UPI) — The son of award-winning author Paul Auster has been charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide for the death of his infant daughter, it has been reported.
Daniel Auster, 44, was charged Friday after the medical examiner’s office determined that his daughter Ruby had died from a combination of fentanyl and heroin in November, the New York Daily News reported.
Auster alleged he had fallen asleep while his 10-month-old daughter napped on his chest in an apartment in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, police told the Daily News. When he woke up, he found her unconscious and called 911.
Ruby was transported to a local hospital where she was declared dead, police told The New York Times. Her initial autopsy showed no signs of trauma but she was later determined to have died from “acute intoxication” caused by the drugs.
It was not revealed how the drugs entered the girl’s system, but a high-ranking police source told the Daily News that Auster had made incriminating statements.
Auster’s famous father, best known for penning the hit book series “The New York Trilogy,” declined to comment when reached by the Daily News.
Both newspapers noted that Auster had previously been sentenced to five years of probation when he was in his 20s for a minor role in the infamous murder and dismemberment of drug dealer Andrew “Angel” Melendez.
Auster was in the apartment the night Melendez was killed by notorious “club kid” Michael Alig and his roommate Robert Riggs during a fight over money and pleaded guilty to stealing $3,000 from Melendez after the crime.
Alig served 17 years in prison for the murder and died of a heroin overdose in 2020 at an apartment in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan after his release.
