Murder At The Daycare: Baby Dies From Fentanyl Found On Play Mat, Bronx Owners Face Fed Charges

One-year-old Nicholas Dominici died while napping on his mat at a daycare center in the Bronx after being exposed to large quantities of fentanyl. He had just started at the daycare and loved it, his mom said.

“God gave him to me, and now he’s gone,” Zoila Dominici said. “I have to thank God for the time we had with him.”

What Happened

Drug dealers had stored over two pounds of fentanyl on top of the mats where the children played and napped.

Police, using overdose-reversal medication Narcan, revived three children under three who were unconscious and unresponsive. But it was too late for Nicholas, who would have turned two in November.

As of Wednesday, daycare owner Grei Mendez and suspect Carlisto Brito are in custody facing 11 federal charges including murder, manslaughter and assault. Police are still searching for Mendez's husband who was caught on video fleeing the daycare on Friday when the crimes occurred. 

Prosecutors said on Tuesday that the defendants tried to cover up the overdoses of the babies, but investigators found a video of someone "carrying two full shopping bags" out of the daycare, leaving the children inside and in desperate need of help.

Detectives learned that Mendez called and spoke to her husband several times before calling 911. Prosecutors added that Mendez deleted 20,000 text messages from her phone before she was arrested, but they managed to recover them, reported NY's ABC 7.

"The defendants alleged conduct that led to those poisonings is unconscionable, it's inexcusable, and it's the reason that they are now in federal custody," said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams.

Since July, Mendez and Brito conspired to distribute fentanyl at the daycare center where they kept large quantities of the deadly drug "despite the daily presence of children, including infants," the complaint said.

New York officials said the defendants also kept kilo presses, which are designed to re-compress drugs in powder form and are commonly used by traffickers at mills or other places where drugs are prepared for sale.

DEA Special Agent Frank Tarentino called fentanyl "the most urgent threat in our nation." 

As of 2021, more than 106,000 people in the U.S. died from drug-involved overdoses with an estimated 66% of those tied to fentanyl, per a recent report released by the National Institute of Drug Abuse.

A Grand Jury is scheduled to be convened on Thursday.