A girl who owned a New York City day care centre where a toddler died after ingesting fentanyl has been sentenced to 45 years in prison after pleading responsible to federal drug fees.
Grei Mendez, 37, dropped her head into her crossed arms in anguish as Judge Jed S. Rakoff introduced the sentence that triggered sobs amongst Mendez’s household and the mom whose 22-month-old little one, Nicholas Feliz-Dominici, died in September 2023.
Judge Rakoff had beforehand given the identical sentence to Mendez’s husband, Felix Herrera-Garcia, after he pleaded responsible to drug fees and inflicting bodily hurt associated to the demise. The couple every confronted a compulsory minimal of 20 years in prison and a most of life for his or her crimes.
Mendez, 37, had pleaded responsible to drug fees together with conspiracy to distribute narcotics ensuing in demise.
Before the sentence was imposed, she apologized to the households of youngsters who attended the Divino Niño day care that she operated out of a Bronx condominium where the couple saved and packaged narcotics.
“I do want all to know it was an accident,” she mentioned by means of an interpreter. “I am very sorry. I hope that someday I may be forgiven.”
When the poisoning occurred on September 15, 2023, Feliz-Dominici was rushed to a close-by hospital, where he died. Three different youngsters uncovered to the fentanyl on the day care survived after medics administered the overdose-reversing drug Narcan.
Police discovered a brick of fentanyl saved on prime of playmats for the kids, together with gear usually used to package deal medicine, in addition to packages of fentanyl beneath a lure door in a play space.
Both of Feliz-Dominici’s mother and father spoke on the sentencing, with the kid’s mom saying it was not potential to forgive Mendez and the daddy describing the lasting ache, saying: “We’re living, but we’re not alive.”
Judge Rakoff cited the feelings he as soon as felt when his older brother “was murdered in cold blood,” however he added that the “glory of the law is not to ignore emotions but to put them in broader perspective.”
He mentioned Mendez had chosen to place the welfare of her personal youngsters and her husband above the welfare of the households and their youngsters that grew to become clients of her day care enterprise.
In a presentence temporary, a defence legal professional submitted proof that Mendez had suffered trauma herself as a baby. Prosecutors urged a prolonged sentence, saying she ignored “clear warning signs” that the infants have been changing into significantly unwell and took no motion to name for lifesaving medical intervention.
“And after tragedy struck, she lied to law enforcement and destroyed evidence in an effort to protect herself and her co-conspirators from their culpability in the death of one baby and poisoning of three others,” they wrote.
In a launch, Acting U.S. Attorney Matthew Podolsky mentioned Mendez put infants as younger as 8 months previous “in harm’s way as they slept, played and ate in a room where over 11 kilograms of fentanyl was hidden underneath their feet.”
Published – March 04, 2025 06:05 am IST
