Norristown man sentenced to state prison for buying the drugs that killed his girlfriend’s 6-year-old son

A Norristown man whose girlfriend’s 6-year-old son overdosed on narcotics he had purchased pleaded guilty Thursday to involuntary manslaughter, endangering the welfare of a child, and drug possession.

Matthew Santiago, 35, was sentenced to two to five years in state prison and five years’ probation for his role in the death of Dominic Lyons. During the tense hearing, one of the boy’s relatives tried to attack Santiago for comments he made in the courtroom.

In handing down the sentence, Montgomery County Court Judge Wendy Rothstein told Dominic’s loved ones, including his father, Hussein Lyons, that she was deeply sorry for their loss.

“No parent should have to bury their child,” Rothstein said. “I know this isn’t comforting to you, and no sentence would bring back your son, but this sentence is significant.”

Santiago was living with and dating Kristin Sabatino on July 16, 2023, when Dominic was found cold to the touch and stiff inside the couple’s apartment on Willow Street. The boy was pronounced dead at the scene.

Dominic’s blood tests revealed that the boy had high levels of fentanyl and xylazine in his system at the time of his death. The amount of narcotics in the boy’s blood was so high, according to prosecutors, that Dominic would have had to ingest the drugs.

Prosecutors said Thursday that Santiago had routinely purchased fentanyl, LSD, Xanax and other drugs for both himself and Sabatino over a two-year period. Other drug paraphernalia, including needles, was found strewed throughout the home that Sabatino and Santiago shared with Dominic and their daughter, who was 2 at the time of their arrests.

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Sabatino faces similar charges, and has a trial pending in Montgomery County Court scheduled for October.

In a statement to Rothstein, Hussein Lyons said Thursday that nobody gave his son “a fighting chance.”

“I just want justice to be served, and I guess it will be in the eyes of the court, but it will never be enough,” Lyons said. “It’s not fair. [Dominic] should still be here.”

Santiago taunted Lyons in response, telling him, “You weren’t even in [Dominic’s] life.” His comments prompted another member of Lyons’ family to rush at Santiago before being stopped by sheriff’s deputies. The man was escorted out of the courtroom and the hearing was temporarily paused as Rothstein warned against further outbursts.

Deputy District Attorney Brianna Ringwood said the plea deal offered to Santiago was made with the approval of Dominic’s family, but acknowledged that “no sentence is enough.”

“There’s no sentence that is going to change what happened,” Ringwood said. “And, really, it’s unfair that this child is not here to spend time with his family, to go to school, and to just do the things that a 6-year-old does.”

Frank Genovese, Santiago’s attorney, said his client accepted and admitted that the lifestyle he was living led to Dominic’s death, and wanted to take accountability.

“I think the driving factor in his mind was to take responsibility for what happened to Dominic,” Genovese said, of the plea. “He always thought of him as his own son, even though he wasn’t his, and just, quite honestly, felt terrible about what happened.”

At the time of Dominic’s death, Sabatino — who has a 2017 conviction for endangering the welfare of a child after police found her overdosed while caring for a then-infant Dominic — told officers she was in recovery and had not been using fentanyl.

But text messages recovered by investigators showed that Sabatino had been complaining of feeling “dope sick” and had asked Santiago to buy her heroin three days before Dominic’s death.

In interviews with detectives, Sabatino said she had given her son Benadryl the night before his death after he said his eyes were itchy and he felt “shaky.” The next morning she called 911 when she went to wake him up and found he was not breathing.