RIVERSIDE (CNS) – Arraignment for a 32-year-old Norco woman accused of allowing her 17-month-old daughter to fatally ingest fentanyl was postponed Friday because she was not transported to court.

Jennifer Johanna Allen was arrested Tuesday following a Riverside County Sheriff’s Department investigation at her residence in the 100 block of Eighth Street, near Crestview Drive.

Along with murder, Allen is charged with child abuse resulting in great bodily injury.

The defendant was slated to be arraigned Friday at the Riverside Hall of Justice, but sheriff’s deputies did not transport her to the courthouse, possibly because she was under medical supervision at the nearby Robert Presley Jail, where she is being held on $1 million bail. No other details were immediately available.

Superior Court Judge Jason Armand rescheduled the hearing for Monday morning.

According to sheriff’s Sgt. Steve Brosche, patrol deputies were called to Allen’s home about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday to investigate reports of a child in medical distress.

Brosche said deputies found the victim, identified in court documents only as “J.A.,” unconscious and “unresponsive.” Efforts by county fire paramedics to resuscitate the baby girl failed, the sergeant said.

“During the course of the investigation, evidence was obtained showing fentanyl played a role in the juvenile’s death,” he said.

Allen was taken into custody without incident. She has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.

Prosecutors have charged nearly two dozen people countywide with second-degree murder in connection with fentanyl poisonings since February 2021.

The synthetic opioid is manufactured in overseas labs, principally in China, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The agency says the substances are smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border by cartels. It’s 80- 100 times more potent than morphine and can be mixed into any number of street narcotics and prescription drugs, without a user knowing what he or she is consuming. Ingestion of only two milligrams can be fatal.

According to federal agencies, fentanyl is now the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45 years old.

Hearing Postponed for Norco Mom Accused of Killing Baby Daughter