Bronx daycare owner pleads guilty in fentanyl death

Editor’s Note: The above video originally aired on October 16, 2024

BRONX, N.Y. (PIX11) – Owner a Bronx Day Care Center pleaded guilty to the death of a child who was exposed to fentanyl, US Attorney Damian Williams said.

Gray Mendes pleaded guilty Tuesday to a daycare drug scheme where prosecutors say Mendez and her husband kept more than 10 kilograms of drugs, including fentanyl.

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One child, 1 year old Nikolay Dominicidied after being exposed to fentanyl, and three others were hospitalized, prosecutors said. Mendez faces a number of charges, including murder, manslaughter, assault and criminal possession of a controlled substance.

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

She is the third person to plead guilty in the case that rocked New York. Earlier this month, her husband, Felix Herrera-Garciawas sentenced to 45 years in prison for participating in a drug scheme.

“This case showed the senseless collateral damage caused the fentanyl epidemicand should remind us all that the demand for illegal drugs so often puts innocent bystanders at risk while drug traffickers ruthlessly pursue profits,” said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams.

Prosecutors say Mendez is accused of hiding drugs in secret compartments and under the floor of a playroom at the daycare she ran. When the children passed out in September 2023, Mendez called her husband several times before calling 911, prosecutors said. Then he came to the kindergarten and, escaping through the bushes, removed some things.

The two schemed and lied to law enforcement, and Herrera-Garcia’s husband fled before being apprehended in Mexico, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Mendez, 37, cried briefly as she explained that she arranged with her husband and another person to store and distribute the drugs, then in September 2023 helped the couple unpack and store the drugs in the Bronx apartment where she ran Divino Niño Daycare.

“It’s going to 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 door opened, she realized it was actually “the perfect way to hide my drug business.”

This story includes reporting from the Associated Press.

Emily Rahal is a digital reporter who has been covering New York since 2023 after reporting for years in Los Angeles. She joined PIX11 in 2024. See more of her work here and follow her on Twitter here.

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