Owner of NYC Day Care Sentenced to 45 Years in Prison Following Toddler’s Fatal Fentanyl Overdose

NEW YORK—A woman who managed a day care center in New York City where a toddler died after ingesting fentanyl has been sentenced to 45 years in prison after admitting guilt to federal drug charges.

Grei Mendez, 37, bowed her head into her crossed arms in distress as Judge Jed S. Rakoff delivered the sentence, prompting tears from Mendez’s family and the mother of 22-month-old Nicholas Feliz-Dominici, who died in September 2023.

Judge Rakoff had previously given the same sentence to Mendez’s husband, Felix Herrera-Garcia, who pleaded guilty to drug charges and causing bodily harm related to the incident. The couple faced a mandatory minimum of 20 years in prison and a maximum of life for their offenses.

Mendez pleaded guilty to various drug charges, including conspiracy to distribute narcotics that resulted in death.

Prior to the sentencing, she expressed remorse to the families of the children who attended the Divino Niño day care, which she operated from a Bronx apartment where the couple kept and packaged narcotics.

“I want everyone to know it was an accident,” she conveyed through an interpreter. “I am truly sorry. I hope that one day I may be forgiven.”

During the poisoning incident on September 15, 2023, Feliz-Dominici was rushed to a hospital, where he ultimately died. Three other children exposed to fentanyl at the day care survived after receiving the overdose-reversing drug Narcan.

Authorities discovered a brick of fentanyl positioned on top of playmats intended for children, along with paraphernalia commonly used for drug packaging, and packages of fentanyl hidden beneath a trap door in a play area.

Both parents of Feliz-Dominici addressed the court during the sentencing, with the mother stating that forgiveness for Mendez was impossible, and the father articulating their enduring pain: “We’re living, but we’re not alive.”

Judge Rakoff referenced his own emotions when his older brother “was murdered in cold blood,” but noted that the “glory of the law is to not ignore emotions but to place them in a broader context.”

He remarked that Mendez had prioritized her own children and her husband over the welfare of the families and children who relied on her day care.

A defense attorney submitted a presentence brief detailing Mendez’s past trauma as a child. Prosecutors, however, called for a lengthy sentence, asserting that Mendez overlooked “clear warning signs” that the children were severely ill and failed to seek urgent medical help.

“Following the tragedy, she deceived law enforcement and destroyed evidence to shield herself and her co-conspirators from accountability in the death of one child and the poisoning of three others,” they stated.

Acting U.S. Attorney Matthew Podolsky expressed that Mendez endangered infants as young as 8 months old “as they slept, played, and ate in a room where over 11 kilograms of fentanyl was hidden beneath them.”

By Larry Neumeister