The husband of Grei Mendez, the operator of the Kingsbridge Heights daycare center where one-year-old Nicholas Feliz Dominici was fatally poisoned over one year ago was sentenced to 45 years in prison, federal prosecutors announced on Wednesday, Oct. 16.

 

Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that Felix Herrera Garcia was sentenced to 45 years in prison for trafficking fentanyl out of the now-closed El Divino Niño daycare, located on 2707 Morris Avenue, which resulted in Nicholas’s death, and the poisoning of three other infants. As reported, Herrera Garcia pled guilty on June 10, before U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff, who later imposed the sentence.

Reacting to the sentencing, Williams said, “Felix Herrera Garcia operated a deadly fentanyl trafficking enterprise out of a daycare, recklessly putting babies at risk of fentanyl exposure on a daily basis. On September 15, 2023, that operation resulted in tragedy when one child was killed and four others were poisoned by the defendant’s deadly drugs.”

 

He continued, “This case demonstrates the deadly reach and scope of the fentanyl epidemic, and the tragic collateral damage it inflicts on American lives. Today’s sentence makes clear that this Office and our law enforcement partners will work tirelessly to ensure that anyone who harms or risks the lives of children in connection with their deadly narcotics activities will be brought to justice.”

According to the complaint, the indictment, and other documents in the public record, from at least in or about October 2022 through September 2023, Herrera Garcia and others conspired to distribute narcotics out of El Divino Niño Daycare (the “daycare”). There, he and his co-conspirators maintained more than eleven kilograms of  fentanyl and heroin in secret compartments, or traps, located under the floor tiles in the playroom of the daycare, where the children played, ate, and slept on a daily basis.

 

The court heard that as a consequence of the drug conspiracy perpetrated by Herrera Garcia and his co-conspirators, on or about Sept. 15, 2023, four children at the daycare, all of whom were under three years of age, experienced the effects of poisoning from exposure to fentanyl. Three of the children were hospitalized. The fourth, Nicholas, a 22-month-old boy, died.

In addition to the prison term, Herrera Garcia, 35, of The Bronx, was sentenced to 5 years of supervised release. As reported, Herrera Garcia had been intercepted by authorities in Mexico having allegedly fled the U.S. after the daycare center was raided in September 2023.

 

In addition to Herrera Garcia and Mendez, 36, Renny Antonio Parra Paredes, 38, and Carlisto Acevedo Brito, 41, a cousin of Herrera Garica, were also arrested, and face various State and federal charges, some including murder and drug trafficking. Parra Paredes has also pleaded guilty and awaits sentencing in federal court.

 

One source told Norwood News Mendez’s own young children were not being cared for at the daycare. As reported, prosecutors said that immediately prior to calling 911, Mendez called her husband twice. They said the first phone call went unanswered and the second phone call lasted just over 10 seconds. They said minutes before emergency services arrived, surveillance footage shows Herrera Garcia, empty-handed, walking swiftly from the building next door into the daycare.

As reported, the intersection of Kingsbridge Terrace and East Kingsbridge Road in Kingsbridge Heights was recently co-named in memory of Nicholas to mark the first anniversary of his death.

 

Williams praised what he described as the outstanding investigative work of the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”), the NYPD, the Southern District of New York digital forensic unit, the complex analytical and social media enhancement team at the New York/New Jersey high intensity drug trafficking area, the organized crime drug enforcement task force (“OCDETF”) New York strike force, and the U.S. Marshals Service (“USMS”).

 

He thanked the NY/NJ regional fugitive task force of the USMS, the USMS office of international operations, the USMS for the Southern District of New York, the USMS for the Southern District of Texas, the USMS for the Southern District of California, the USMS Mexico field office, the USMS investigative operations division, the DEA New York strike force, the DEA regional office in Allentown, Pennsylvania, the DEA regional office in McAllen, Texas, and the DEA regional office in Mexico City, Mexico.

He also thanked the DEA regional office in Hermosillo, Mexico, the DEA regional office in Monterrey, Mexico, the DEA special operations division, the NYPD 52nd Precinct’s detective squad, the NYPD Bronx homicide squad, the NYPD laboratory, the office of international affairs of the U.S. justice department’s criminal division, the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of Texas, the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of California, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and Mexican federal and state authorities.

 

This case was prosecuted by the Southern District of New York’s narcotics unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Brandon C. Thompson, Maggie Lynaugh, and Justin Rodriguez, as well as Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Karl P. Miller of the office of the Bronx County District Attorney’s homicide bureau were in charge of the prosecution.

Read our latest story on the Mendez case here. Click here to view a video of Mendez and Acevedo Brito leaving the 52nd Precinct on Webster Avenue in Norwood on Sunday afternoon, Sept. 17, 2023. Mendez and Acevedo Brito are presumed innocent unless and until convicted in a court of law.

 

NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) provides training and regularly updated information on how to obtain and administer naloxone (Narcan). Click here for more information.