Owner of New York daycare where toddler fatally ingested fentanyl pleads guilty

NEW YORK (AP) — The woman who owns a daycare in New York City, where baby dies after taking fentanyl pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal drug charges.

More than a year after the death of 22-month-old Nicholas Dominici in September 2023, Gray Mendez pleaded guilty in Manhattan to charges including conspiracy to distribute drugs resulting in death.

Earlier this month, her husband Felix Herrera-Garcia was sentenced to 45 years in prison after pleading guilty to drug possession and assault causing bodily harm.

Mendez, 37, cried briefly as she explained that she agreed with her husband and another person to store and distribute drugs, and then in September 2023 helped the couple package and store drugs in a Bronx apartment where she ran Divino Niño’s day care center.

“This will haunt me my whole life,” said Mendez, who has four children of her own.

Mendez said her husband encouraged her to open a daycare, and she believed he was doing it to help her. But she said that once the doors opened, she realized it was actually “the perfect way to hide his drug business.”

Mendez is scheduled to be sentenced on March 3. She faces a mandatory minimum of 20 years in prison and the possibility of up to life in prison.

Three more children exposed to fentanyl at a day care center survived after medics administered the overdose-reversing drug Narcan.

Police searching a Bronx apartment found a large quantity of fentanyl and other drug paraphernalia hidden under a manhole in a children’s play area. Photos shared by police at the time, bags of powder were shown hidden by plywood and tile flooring.

Investigators also found kilogram of fentanyl stored on play mats used by children and several devices to mix powder with other drugs and press it into bricks.

Prosecutors said Mendez also took steps to cover up the drug operation after realizing that some children do not wake up after sleep.

They say she called her husband before alerting first responders, who were later seen on surveillance footage entering the building and exiting through an alley with several shopping bags.

In a statement, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams called Mendez’s conduct “reprehensible.”

“Gray Mendez just admitted that she conspired to store and distribute large quantities of dangerously toxic fentanyl at a Bronx day care center, a place where parents expected their children to be protected and safe,” he said. “From the outset, this case has demonstrated the senseless collateral damage caused by the fentanyl epidemic and should remind us all that the demand for illicit drugs so often puts innocent bystanders at risk while drug traffickers ruthlessly pursue profits.”

Mendez’s lawyers did not respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday. They previously said she knew nothing about the drug trade, while suggesting her husband was responsible for the drugs.

Mendez also faces charges in state court of murder, manslaughter and assault. She pleaded not guilty.