A San Jose couple was convicted of murder Friday in the death of their 19-month-old daughter, who overdosed after her parents left her in a room with fentanyl and methamphetamine.
The conviction marks the first of its kind in Santa Clara County, prosecutors said. The couple, 29-year-old Derek Rayo and 31-year-old Kelly Richardson, were also found guilty of felony child endangerment and face a maximum sentence of 15 years to life in prison.
“Fentanyl kills,” Santa Clara District Attorney Rosen said in a statement. “In this case, the powerful opioid was left around this toddler like a loaded gun. The criminal recklessness of these two defendants killed their own child. I thank the jury for giving that child’s tragically short life some meaning.”
Winter Rayo died on Aug. 12, 2023. An autopsy later found she had about 25 times the lethal amount of fentanyl in her blood and more of the drug undigested in her stomach. Prosecutors said her parents waited more than 11 hours before calling 911 to report that their daughter had died.
Texts, social media messages, photographs and videos showed Rayo and Richardson using narcotics around their daughter from the time of her birth until her death, prosecutors said. The jury found that the couple was regularly high while caring for Winter and kept drugs within her reach in their home.
Prosecutors also noted that Rayo and Richardson appeared to know the danger of the narcotics, at least twice putting a clothespin on their daughter’s nose while they used drugs around her.
Philip Ortega, the dealer who allegedly supplied the couple with drugs, has also been charged with murder in a pending case. Prosecutors believe Ortega also provided the methamphetamine and fentanyl that killed Phoenix Castro, a 3-month-old baby girl in San Jose who died three months before Winter.
In Santa Rosa and in San Francisco, other parents have been charged with murder after their babies and young children died from ingesting fentanyl left within their reach.