The Bronx daycare owner who stored fentanyl and other drugs under a trap door in the children’s play area, leading to an incident where a baby died, and three other children were poisoned, is expected to be sentenced on Wednesday, along with her husband, as family members pack the court for victim impact statements.
Grei Mendez pleaded guilty last October to the charges involving the September 2023 death of 22-month-old Nicholas Dominici and the poisoning of three of his daycare mates. Prosecutors say the three kids who survived were administered the overdose-reversing drug Narcan, crediting that with saving their lives.
Nicolas’ parents are expected to deliver impact statements at Wednesday’s hearing, as is the mother of two of the children who survived the fentanyl exposure. More families who enrolled there may join.
At her guilty plea hearing, Menendez, then 37, cried briefly as she explained that she agreed with her husband and another person to possess and distribute drugs. Then, in September 2023, she helped the pair package and store the narcotics in the Bronx apartment where she ran Divino Niño daycare.
Mendez said her husband encouraged her to open the center, and she believed he was doing it to help. But she said as soon as the doors opened, she realized that it was actually a “perfect way to conceal his drug business.”
“This will haunt me for as long as I live,” said Mendez, who has four children of her own.
Mendez copped a plea to charges including conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death. The two also were convicted of trafficking fentanyl from the daycare. Their federal sentences have already been handed down. The ones coming out of the Bronx district attorney’s office include second-degree state murder charges.
A shocking discovery
Police executing a search warrant on the Bronx apartment found a large quantity of fentanyl and other drug paraphernalia hidden beneath a trap door in the children’s play area.
Photos shared by police at the time showed bags full of powder concealed by plywood and tile flooring.
Investigators also found a kilogram of fentanyl stored on top of playmats used by children and multiple devices for mixing the powder with other narcotics and pressing it into bricks.
Prosecutors have said Mendez also took steps to cover up the drug operation after realizing that some of the children were not waking up from their naps. They say she called her husband before alerting first responders.
Initially, Mendez’s lawyers say said she didn’t know about the drug operation.
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