Bronx day care operator, husband sentenced for toddler's fentanyl poisoning death
BRONX (WABC) -- A former day care owner and her husband found to be responsible for the fentanyl exposure death of a toddler in 2023 have been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
Grei Mendez, 38, and Felix Herrera Garcia, 37, were sentenced on Wednesday for the murder of Nicholas Dominici by fentanyl poisoning.
It happened September 15, 2023 and the pair was found guilty of second-degree murder by a jury last November.
The 22-month-old was one of four babies exposed to the drugs at the home day care that was masking a narcotics operation.
"A beautiful little boy died and three children aged eight months to two years became seriously ill from fentanyl poisoning," District Attorney Darcel Clark said. "These babies were shields to protect a narcotics operation. Grei Mendez and her husband, Felix Herrera Garcia showed such depravity that they hid fentanyl under the floor where the children took naps. Little Nicholas paid with his life for their greed; now Mendez and Garcia will spend the rest of their days in prison."
Dominici's parents gave emotional victim impact statements at court. They clung to a large portrait of their son.
The victim's mother, Zolia Dominici, told the court that the pair should never get out of jail.
"And we fight, we pray every day to wake up and have the power to be standing on that courthouse, it's not easy," said the victim's father Otoniel Feliz.
The grieving parents described the day their son died.
"I see my heart bleeding from his mouth, the doctors did everything they could to bring him back to life but it was too late, he had been dead for a while," Dominici said.
Mendez and Garcia are currently serving 45-year sentences in federal prison after their convictions for narcotics trafficking resulting in the death of Nicholas.
The state prison sentence will run concurrently to the federal sentence.
"It is a measure of justice because now they're fully accountable, drug charges in the federal system, murder charges in the state system," Clark said.
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