Daycare owner in toddler's fentanyl death pleads guilty – NBC New York

A woman who owned a New York City daycare center where a toddler died after taking fentanyl pleaded guilty to drug charges on Tuesday.

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

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

Mendez, 37, cried briefly as she explained that she had agreed with her husband and another person to possess and distribute drugs, then helped the couple package the narcotics in their Bronx apartment in September 2023 and to keep it, where she ran the Divino Niño daycare center.

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

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

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

Three other children exposed to fentanyl at the daycare survived after doctors gave them the overdose-reversing drug Narcan.

Police executing a search warrant on the Bronx apartment found a large quantity of fentanyl and other drug paraphernalia hidden under a trap door in the children's play area. Photos Shared by police At the time, bags full of powder were shown hidden under plywood and tile floors.

Investigators also found a kilogram of fentanyl stored on children's play mats and on several devices used to mix the powder with other narcotics and press it into bricks.

Prosecutors said Mendez also took steps to cover up the drug operation after noticing that some of the children were not waking up from their nap.

They say she called her husband before alerting first responders. Surveillance footage later showed him entering the building and leaving through a side alley with several shopping bags.

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

“Grei Mendez just admitted that she conspired to store and distribute large quantities of dangerously toxic fentanyl at a Bronx daycare center, a place where parents expected their children to be protected and safe,” he said. “This case has demonstrated from the beginning the senseless collateral damage caused by the fentanyl epidemic and should remind us all that the demand for illegal narcotics so often endangers innocent bystanders while drug traffickers recklessly pursue profit.”

Mendez's lawyers did not respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday. They had previously said she had no knowledge of the drug operation but suspected her husband was responsible for the drugs.

Mendez was also charged in state court with murder, manslaughter and assault. She has pleaded not guilty.