Morphine kills baby; grandpa charged

GAINES TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) - A 59-year-old man has been charged with manslaughter in the death of his 1-year-old grandson.

Greg Busby was arraigned Thursday and given a $50,000 bond. He is currently at the Michigan Department of Corrections facility in Jackson on a parole violation in connection with this case.

Antonio Garcia-Lazarski was staying with Busby and his wife on Feb. 10 while the child's mom was out of town. When Busby's wife went to check on the toddler at their home in the 100 block of Maplebrook Street SE in Gaines Township, she noticed Antonio was not breathing.

Despite rescue efforts, Antonio was declared dead at the scene.

An autopsy was performed and toxicology results reveal Antonio had "a lethal dose of morphine and a non-lethal dose of Benadryl in his system," according to a news release from the Kent County Sheriff's Department.

Based on the investigation, Busby was then charged.

Busby told detectives he didn't mean to harm his grandson, court documents show. He said he wanted to calm the baby down and make him feel better.

Court documents show that Antonio also had rare hereditary disease.

Busby has an extensive criminal history dating back to 1969, mostly for check fraud and forgeries. In 1992 he was caught trying to escape from prison and served time for that. On Oct. 25, 2011, he was paroled after serving time for forgery and counterfeiting, and this parole was scheduled to last until April 2013.

Prior to being held on this parole violation Busby had a clean parole record, said Michigan Department of Corrections spokesperson John Cordell.