Owner of daycare where child died from fentanyl pleads guilty to federal charges

The owner of a kindergarten where One-year-old boy dies from fentanyl poisoning and three other children fell ill, pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal charges, resolving a case that horrified New York and highlighted the scourge fentanyl epidemic in the country.

Gray Mendez pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death and great bodily injury, one count of possession of narcotics with intent to distribute resulting in death, and one count of possession of narcotics with intent to distribute narcotics. resulting in serious bodily injury. The three counts carry a minimum of 20 years in prison and a maximum of life in prison.

Prosecutors said the children were poisoned because Mendez, her husband and an accomplice decided to operate a large-scale fentanyl packaging and distribution operation out of her daycare center, which she operated out of a small Bronx apartment.

On the afternoon of Sept. 15, 2023, when 1-year-old Nicholas Dominici and another child became unresponsive, prosecutors said Mendez made a series of phone calls: first to a community center that referred the children to day care, then to her husband and then to 911.

Moments after Mendez called 911 but before emergency personnel arrived, prosecutors said her husband was seen on surveillance camera running through the front door and then exiting the back of the building with two heavy bags.

Nicholas died from fentanyl, and three other children, ranging in age from 8 months to 2 years, were hospitalized and treated with Narcan, police said.

At the day care center, authorities found a one-kilogram brick of fentanyl, two one-kilogram presses and two trapdoors that revealed hidden compartments under the playroom floor tiles, authorities said.

The traps contained more than 11 kilograms of drugs, including fentanyl and heroin, as well as tools used to brand, package, distribute and transport drugs, the indictment states.

Federal prosecutors said they have surveillance footage and a voicemail in which Mendez said running the daycare was not the end of her to prove the facility was a front for a drug operation.

“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,” Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the South district of New York. , it said in a statement Tuesday.

“This case demonstrates the senseless collateral damage caused by the fentanyl epidemic and should remind us all that the demand for illicit drugs often puts innocent bystanders at risk while drug traffickers ruthlessly pursue profits,” Williams added.

Earlier this month, Mendez’s husband, Felix Herrera Garcia, was sentenced to 45 years in prison after pleading guilty to federal drug charges. A third accomplice also pleaded guilty.