Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark announced on Thursday, Oct. 5, that Grei Mendez, the operator of Divino Niño Daycare Center in Kingsbridge Heights where one-year-old Nicholas Dominici was apparently fatally poisoned, her husband, and the cousin of Herrero Garcia, were formally charged with murder “under circumstances evincing a depraved indifference to human life, assault, and other charges” for allegedly exposing Nicholas and three other surviving babies to fentanyl which was stored in the daycare.  As reported, they also face additional federal charges.

 

As reported, the NYPD confirmed Herrero Garcia had been taken into custody in Mexico in recent weeks and federal authorities said he was later extradited to the United States on drug trafficking charges.

In the context of the announcement, Clark said, “A beautiful little boy lost his life and three precious children aged eight months to two years became seriously ill from fentanyl poisoning. This is a catastrophe. Our sorrow is matched only by outrage because these babies were shields to protect a narcotics operation. Nicholas’ death was entirely, excruciatingly, needless and avoidable. We will get justice for him, the other children and their families.”

 

Clark also said that Narcan kits had been found inside the daycare center that were not those used by EMS upon arrival and that they were not used and unopened when law enforcement arrived.

Clark said Grei Mendez, 36, and Felix Herrera Garcia, 34, both of 2705 Morris Avenue, the Bronx, and Carlisto Acevedo Brito, 41, of 2707 Morris Avenue, were arraigned on Thursday on an indictment charging second-degree murder, first-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, second-degree manslaughter, four counts of first-degree assault, five counts of second-degree assault, second, third and fourth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and four counts of endangering the welfare of a child before Bronx Supreme Court Justice Margaret Clancy. The defendants were held in custody and are due back in court on Nov. 27.

 

According to the investigation, and as previously reported, on Friday, Sept. 15, at 2:43 p.m. in an apartment in 2707 Morris Avenue that was a licensed, home-based daycare, and where Brito resided in a bedroom, four children were poisoned by exposure to fentanyl, resulting in the death of Nicholas and acute opioid intoxication requiring hospital treatment for another 8-month-old baby girl, her 2-year-old brother, and another 2-year-old boy. Narcan kits were used on all four affected children, two by EMT technicians, and three of the four children survived, as reported. However, Nicholas died.

According to the investigation, and as previously reported, a kilo of fentanyl was found in a closet in the daycare apartment, and six kilos of fentanyl, heroin and other controlled substances were found under a trap door in the floor, under a padded mat where children napped. Kilo presses and other drug paraphernalia were also found in the apartment according to prosecution officials.

 

Holding back tears and displaying a photo of his deceased baby boy, Otoniel Feliz Samboy addressed the media during the press conference to call for more to be done to prevent a similar tragedy. He was accompanied by his wife, Zoila Dominici, other family members, as well as families of the other children affected by the tragedy.

 

Speaking in both Spanish and English, and later taking some questions from the media, Feliz Samboy thanked everyone, the authorities, the health department, the police, for leading the investigation to the point where it is now. “I understand that justice will be done, and everything that will be done, everything possible, will not bring my son back,” he said. “But I would like to ask some things in his honor because he is a very important part of our family and right now, part of our whole society. I repeat nothing will bring him back.”

Feliz Samboy added, “Seniors, for example, have places where they receive care but recently they now have options so that their own family members can take care of them in their homes, and if we analyze, for example, the budget that’s given to someone who is 65 years old, they will have care until their life ends, some of them up until 90 years of age.”

 

The brokenhearted father continued, “But for our family who do not trust daycares, at least for children from birth until 6 months old, or better yet from 6 months old until 3 years old, to go to Pre-K, it’s only two years. You can find a budget that families who do not trust in daycares… you can pay a family member to take care of them. This will not affect my family but at least help our community and help the march forward in order to continue helping this beautiful New York who has opened its doors to all people who have arrived from different parts of the world.”

 

“It doesn’t matter if we have legal documents,” Feliz Samboy said. “If we don’t have legal documents, the City will open its doors to us and we thank you as an immigrant community, but the same way in which we work hard for our city, in my son’s name, I ask that the authorities in charge analyze this suggestion and see what can be done on that point.”

 

He continued, “Another thing that I want to ask in my son’s name is that from now on, if you’re going to do an inspection in a daycare, don’t send a prior warning, because anything that’s wrong will be fine the day of the inspection. Do surprise inspections. It’s never too much to be one step ahead.”

Feliz Samboy added, “To the parents, sadly, we have to accept moments…. like my family, we had to seek resources in a daycare in order to work and to keep moving forward, but if that’s the only option you have, do it. Keep going forward. Don’t trust the place 100 percent. Go as a surprise, open doors and cupboards. See where your children sleep. Check the mattress and [inaudible] because we don’t know. We want to trust in order to keep moving forward. We have to work together but each one as a parent has to be sure that everything is fine in that place.”

 

His voice trembling, Feliz Samboy then said, “I, as a father, fear that my son will be touched inappropriately in a place like that. That’s the reason for which I, myself, have worked, and my wife has always taken care of our other children, but due to the difficult situation, ok, we had to do so for Nicholas, and it was only 5 days in which I had my son at that place and I had hoped in four years, I could have had his kindergarten photo but sadly, what I will have is a reminder of his death, and that has to change. Thank you very much.”

 

Audible cries were heard at this point from other members of the family.

Asked what he thought of those responsible for running the daycare facility where his son died and putting children in daycare, Feliz Samboy said, “Personally, we [trusted] in this daycare because we [waited] for one year in a homebase for a space because, you know, it’s a lot of kids in the city and finally, we got this space in this daycare, through this homebase, and then, every single day, the lady in charge sent text messages to my wife. We trusted in [her] because she [kept] us updated on everything happening every single day [at] the daycare. We never imagined this [was] going to happen.”

 

Home-based programs provide care to children on a regular basis for more than three hours per day per child, according to NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), and are regulated by the State’s Office of Children and Family Services. Family day care allows for up to six children, ages 6 weeks through 12 years, plus two additional school-age children, according to DOHMH. There must always be one caregiver for every two children who are younger than 2 years old, according to DOHMH.

Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (CCRRs) provide services to parents and day care providers in every county of New York State. In New York City, the four CCRRs listed are Child Development Support Corporation, Brooklyn, Chinese American Planning Council, Inc., Manhattan, Committee for Hispanic Children & Families, Inc. (CHCF), Manhattan and Day Care Council of New York, Inc. in Manhattan.

 

He added, “And then [inaudible] my boy was eating. She sent us pictures because my boy was eating and every single [thing] happening over there, concerning [to] my child we have in communication with them. We felt good about it. We [trusted] in this daycare because everything was going ok.” He added that his son appeared happy to go there, including when they picked him up.

 

Feliz Samboy said of the operators of the daycare, those arrested, that they didn’t deserve to be called human, in his opinion, and to do so was offensive. “I don’t have the words, the sad words, to call them because you know they take a place that is supposed to take care of the kids to work with trafficking drugs,” he said. “Never imagined that.”

Norwood News asked Feliz Samboy if there was any truth to a prior media report that the Divino Niño Daycare Center had been recommended to him and his wife by a third party. He replied, “We was recommended by the homebase. It’s supposed that this place had a license, the person had license and everything was ok.”

 

He added, “My wife said on the same day, on the morning when my wife dropped off the kids there, the supervisor of the homebase was in the place. That makes us like feel safe about it because the supervisor was there on the same day. But another thing, on Sept. 9, on the same week we started carrying Nicholas to the place, they processed an inspection. How we can imagine something wrong is passing in this place when it was having an inspection at the beginning of the year, and was having an inspection the exact same day when we start giving our son at this place?” he asked.

Asked if he left betrayed by Mendez, he said in part, “Yes. For example, if you pay one car and someone told you, ‘This is brand new. Everything is ok [with] this car.’ When you run away, and burn the engine, how you feel about it? That’s what I’m feeling. She [did] everything I said [before]: text messages, photos, and everything about our son, [making] us trusting [her], but she was lying every single day because [her] purpose was not to [take] care of the kids. The real business was behind the screen, taking the life of the kids, on risk, and making money in this way. I can’t imagine.”

 

Asked about the emotions he felt in court earlier that day when he saw Mendez, Feliz Samboy said in part, “If I take a scale to measure this, it broke all the rules, because at the moment I saw this lady….[….].. it’s not supposed that this man live in the same place, because this place was supposed to be used for the daycare, not for a rented room. When my son died, we had the news that another person was living there. If I had known this, I would not have sent my kids to this place.”

He added, “I don’t know who is this person and I don’t trust anybody who is not licensed to be close to my son, and when they go inside together [in court], we felt really emotional because we [remembered] every single detail from this tragic event. It’s really hard for us.”

 

Feliz Samboy went on to say that he and his family feel betrayed by the daycare. He also said that he filled out about five pages of emergency contact information when they first registered their son with the daycare and when the emergency happened, they only found out at the very last moment. “What were the forms for emergency contact for?” he asked. “She didn’t even take a moment to call the police and knowing all these disastrous things that are happening, it brings all together the most negative feelings you could possibly feel and you feel betrayed because that person showed us that it was a trustworthy place, that she was going to be like a mother for our son at that time. It’s unacceptable.”

Norwood News also asked if the discovery of an additional 40 pounds of fentanyl at 2800 Heath Avenue six blocks from the daycare, as reported, on Tuesday, Sept. 26, was linked to the case. Clark replied, “Not that I know of.”

 

The defendants face a minimum of 15 to 25 years to life in prison if found guilty. A person arrested and charged with a crime is deemed innocent unless and until convicted in a court of law.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Karl Miller, homicide counsel, under the supervision of Christine Scaccia, chief of the homicide bureau, and under the overall supervision of James Brennan, deputy chief of the trial division, and Theresa Gottlieb, chief of the trial division.

 

Clark thanked David Slott, chief of the forensic sciences unit; homicide advocate Ana Pimentel, the Crime Victims Assistance Bureau, Bronx DA Senior Detective Investigators John Might, Yani Pascale, Kareen Clay, and Bronx DA Detective Investigator Dwayne Anderson under the supervision of Chief Frank Chiara, for their assistance in the case.

 

She also thanked NYPD Detectives Manuel Cruz of the 52nd Precinct, Sheldon Smith of Bronx Homicide for their work on the investigation as well as Montefiore Health System where three of the children were brought for treatment on the day of the incident, and the City’s medical examiner, “Dr. Graham,” for the medical evidence which was obtained to support the criminal case.

 

NYPD Detective Jim Kenny thanked Clark, her team, federal partners at the Drug Enforcement Agency “across the country’, FDNY, and EMS for all their help with the case also.

 

Separately, as also reported, on Wednesday, Sept. 27, Mayor Eric Adams, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Police Commissioner Edward Caban, and others confirmed during a press conference that a second New York City daycare center (located in Manhattan North) has been shut down following the execution of three search warrants and the subsequent discovery of ghost guns in an unlocked room and a ghost gun 3D printing machine at the center.

Read our previous stories on the Divino Niño Daycare Center tragedy here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Read our previous stories on Narcan kit training here and here.

 

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.

 

A link to a legitimate GoFundMe page, set up by Nicholas’ parents to help with their financial expenses in the wake of the tragedy, can be found in our previous story 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.