Mother of 1-year-old Killed by Fentanyl in Bronx Daycare Calls It ‘EVERY PARENT’S NIGHTMARE’ as Dealer Sentenced
The emotional mother of a 1-year-old who died from fentanyl poisoning at a Bronx day care that also served as a drug den described the tragedy as “every parent’s nightmare” as the narcotics mill’s boss was sentenced to 45 years in prison.
“I can tell you something for sure: celebrating your child’s birthday in a cemetery is not an easy thing,” Zoila Dominici told a Manhattan court as Felix Herrera Garcia was sentenced Wednesday, a week before Nicholas Feliz Dominici would have turned three.
The convicted heroin dealer, who pled guilty in June to all counts leading from the boy’s death at Divino Niño Daycare in Kingsbridge, teared up in court and pleaded with Dominici’s family to forgive him.
“I understand that my apology today may mean nothing, but it means a lot to me,” he said, standing in a jail-issued tan jumpsuit with his fingers pressed on the defense table in front of him.
“I know this won’t be easy, but I ask if they can ever forgive me,” he joked. “I have nightmares about what happened that day.”
Wednesday’s hearing marked the first sentencing in connection with the horrifying death inside the day care, where Herrera Garcia and his associates concealed 12 kg of narcotics in trap doors and closets hidden beneath the mats where toddlers played and napped, according to investigators.
Three other children were poisoned on September 15, 2023, including a 2-year-old kid who was brought to the hospital and nearly survived after being revived with the opioid overdose medication Narcan, according to court documents.
Herrera Garcia arrived on the scene after receiving a call from his wife Grei Mendez, who operated the daycare and is facing her own criminal accusations, and lingered for only two minutes before exiting the facility with narcotics bags in hand, according to camera evidence.
“With children dying on the floor, he rescues the drugs and not the babies,” US prosecutor Maggie Lynaugh said in court Wednesday.
Herrera Garcia also continued to sell narcotics despite his brother’s death in October 2022 from fentanyl, a lethal synthetic opioid 50 to 100 times stronger than heroin.
“The warning signs that this tragedy was going to occur could not have been more clear, and the defendant wantonly ignored them all,” the feds stated in a court filing last week.
Herrera Garcia fled the nation following Nicholas’ killing and was eventually apprehended in Mexico.
Herrera Garcia, speaking through a Spanish interpreter, asserted Wednesday that he attempted to “help” the dying children and that he only left the scene after hearing sirens from an approaching ambulance.
Prosecutors had sought a life sentence for his guilty plea counts, which included conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death.
However, Judge Jed Rakoff imposed the decades-long sentence after determining that the death did not constitute deliberate murder.
The judge, however, deemed the case considerably more serious than “everyday manslaughter,” and lamented the tragedy of “pitiful, innocent babes that were poisoned and, in one case, killed.”
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