The owner of a Bronx day care that doubled as a drug mill could be imprisoned for life after a toddler died in her care after being exposed to drugs, NBC News reports. On Wednesday, a New York judge sentenced Divino Niño day care owner Grei Mendez, 38, and her husband, Felix Herrera Garcia, 37, to 25 years to life for the fentanyl poisoning death of 22-month-old Nicholas Dominici, prosecutors said. A jury previously convicted the pair of second-degree murder and assault after four children at the center were sickened in September 2023; Nicholas died, and three others survived opioid exposure. Nicholas' parents testified that the couple should never leave prison, ABC 7 reports. "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," his mother recalled.
Prosecutors said fentanyl was processed with the same kitchen tools used to prepare the kids' meals, and investigators later found a kilo of fentanyl in a closet and another 12 kilos of narcotics under a trapdoor in the playroom. Before 911 was called, Mendez phoned Garcia, who allegedly removed drugs from the site and fled, later escaping to Mexico before being captured and extradited. The couple are already serving 45 years after pleading guilty to related federal drug charges; the new state sentence will run at the same time. "These babies were shields to protect a narcotics operation," Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said. Both Mendez and Herrera Garcia apologized before they were sentenced, CBS News reports.
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