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<\/a>THE PARENTS OF the late Nicholas Feliz Dominici, 1, Otoniel Feliz Samboy and Zoila Dominici, address the media, together with Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark, Assistant District Attorney Karl Miller (not pictured), and others at Bronx Criminal Court on Friday, Nov. 21, 2025, after Grei Mendez, the former manager of now-closed El Divino Ni\u00f1o daycare center, located on Morris Avenue in Kingsbridge Heights, The Bronx, who had previously been found guilty in federal court and had been sentenced to 45 years for charges arising from the accidental death of Nicholas from a fentanyl overdose on Sept. 15, 2023, was also found guilty by unanimous verdict by a jury on two separate New York State charges.\u00a0Screenshot by S\u00edle Moloney<\/p>\n
Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark announced Wednesday, March 4, that the operator of a Bronx home daycare center and her husband were sentenced to 25 years to life in prison by Bronx Supreme Court Justice Margaret Clancy for the accidental death<\/a>\u00a0due to fentanyl<\/a>\u00a0poisoning of 22-month-old Nicholas Feliz Domenici on Sept. 15, 2023, and for the exposure of three other children to fentanyl<\/a>\u00a0who survived the poisoning.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n As reported<\/a>, Grei Mendez<\/a>, 38, the daycare operator and Felix Herrera Garcia<\/a>, 37, her husband, both of 2705 Morris Avenue, The Bronx, were found guilty on a State charge of second-degree murder (depraved indifference to human life) on Nov. 21, 2025. Additionally, Mendez was found guilty of the State charge of first-degree assault and Hererra Garcia was found guilty of the State charge of second-degree assault on the same date. Both<\/a> had previously pleaded guilty<\/a>\u00a0in federal court on separate charges relating to the incident. Read more here<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cA beautiful little boy died and three children aged eight months to two years became seriously ill from fentanyl poisoning,\u201d Clark said on Wednesday after the sentencing. \u201cThese babies were shields to protect a narcotics operation. Grei Mendez and her husband, Felix Herrera Garcia showed such depravity that they hid fentanyl under the floor where the children took naps. Little Nicholas paid with his life for their greed; now Mendez and Garcia will spend the rest of their days in prison.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n As reported<\/a>, and according to facts at trial, on Sept. 15, 2023, in an apartment in 2707 Morris Avenue in the Kingsbridge Heights section of The Bronx, at a licensed daycare named El Divino Ni\u00f1o, four children were poisoned by exposure to fentanyl: 22-month-old Nicholas Dominici died, 2-year-old Abel Garcia suffered respiratory arrest but survived after being revived at a hospital, Abel\u2019s 8-month-old sister, Kiara Garcia, and Jaziel Lino, another 2-year-old boy, suffered acute opioid intoxication requiring hospital treatment. Emergency medical service technicians used Narcan to reverse symptoms of the brother and sister.<\/p>\n The court heard that large quantities of fentanyl were being processed in the daycare center including with the use of kitchen equipment Mendez used to prepare the children\u2019s food. Prosecutors said that when they were sickened, and before calling 911, Mendez called her husband, who removed drugs and\/or paraphernalia from the location. They said Mendez was also heard on the call telling her husband to go out the back of the daycare. Video showed Herrera Garcia fleeing the building through a back alley while carrying weighted plastic bags before police and medical responders arrived.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The court heard that a kilo of fentanyl was found in a closet, and twelve additional kilos of fentanyl, heroin and other narcotic substances\u00a0were found under<\/a>\u00a0a trap door in the floor of the playroom, directly below where the children played and slept. Kilo presses and drug packaging paraphernalia were found in the apartment as well, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n As above, Mendez and Garcia are currently serving 45-year<\/a>\u00a0sentences in federal prison after their convictions for narcotics trafficking resulting in Nicholas\u2019s death. The state prison sentence will run concurrently to the federal sentence.<\/p>\n GREI MENDEZ, THE daycare owner of now-closed El Divino Ni\u00f1o Daycare Center, located on Morris Avenue in Kingsbridge Heights, The Bronx, leaves the 52nd Pct in Norwood in September 2023, after she was charged in the death of Nicholas Feliz Dominici, 1, who died on Sept. 15, 2023, from an accidental fentanyl overdose. A covert fentanyl racket was being run at the daycare. Three others, including Mendez\u2019s husband were also charged in connection to the incident, in which three other infants also overdosed but survived after they were administered Narcan, a lifesaving drug that helps reverse the effects of an overdose. Video by Norwood New via YouTube<\/p>\n The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Karl Miller, senior homicide counsel, who also worked on the federal case, and former Assistant District Attorney Izamar Plaza of Trial Bureau 50, under the supervision of Burim Namani, deputy chief of the Homicide Bureau, 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.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Clark thanked David Slott, chief of the Forensic Sciences Unit; Ana Pimentel, homicide advocate supervisor at the Crime Victims Assistance Bureau, and Bronx District Attorney 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.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n She also thanked NYPD Detectives Sheldon Smith of the Bronx Homicide Squad, Manuel Cruz of the 52nd Precinct Detective Squad, and Special Agents Edison Serpa and Kyle Harrell of the Drug Enforcement Administration, NYPD Police Laboratory and Latent Print Section, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Margaret Lynaugh and Brandon Thompson of the Southern District of New York for their work in the case.<\/p>\n As reported<\/a>, earlier this year, the city council passed various laws, sponsored by Council Member Pierina Sanchez (C.D. 14) on daycare inspection training and parents\u2019 rights as regards childcare programs, something Nicholas\u2019s parents had pressed for in the wake of his death. Other protective laws sponsored by State Sen. Gustavo Rivera (S.D. 33) and others have since passed at State<\/a> level, as reported.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n On the first anniversary of Nicholas\u2019s death, Nicholas Feliz Dominici Way was unveiled<\/a> in his memory at Kingsbridge Terrace and East Kingsbridge Road in the his native Kingsbridge Heights. It followed prior remembrance services<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson had previously said she disagreed<\/a> with those who sought to downplay the severity of the fentanyl crisis<\/a> in The Bronx. Shocking and tragic as Nicholas\u2019s death was, it was not<\/a>, unfortunately, the first<\/a>\u00a0of its<\/a>\u00a0kind<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Asked in November 2025 how their other children were doing, Otoniel Feliz Samboy and Zoila Dominici, Nicholas\u2019s parents, said they were doing good. As she addressed the press in Spanish on that day, Dominici said, \u201cToday is a great day in one way because even though we have a verdict for him today\u2026.it\u2019s criminal\u2026..but we don\u2019t have our child.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Breaking down in quiet tears as her husband slipped his arm around her waist, the young mom thanked Clark, Miller and everyone involved. She continued, \u201cWe still have our empty space, and it will be empty for the rest of our lives.\u201d Gradually, raising her voice slightly, as if in a show of defiance for her lost son, Dominici added, \u201cNothing will fill it, but we have justice, the justice that Nicholas deserved!\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/a>ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY Karl Miller (second from left) from the Office of the Bronx District Attorney joins the parents of the late Nicholas Feliz Dominici, 1, Otoniel Feliz Samboy and Zoila Dominici, as they address the media, together with Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark and others at Bronx Criminal Court on Friday, Nov. 21, 2025, after Grei Mendez, the former manager of now-closed El Divino Ni\u00f1o daycare center, located on Morris Avenue in Kingsbridge Heights, The Bronx, who had previously been found guilty in federal court and had been sentenced to 45 years for charges arising from the accidental death of Nicholas from a fentanyl overdose on Sept. 15, 2023, was also found guilty by unanimous verdict by a jury on two separate New York State charges.\u00a0
Video screenshot by S\u00edle Moloney<\/p>\n<\/a>ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY Karl Miller (second from left) from the Office of the Bronx District Attorney joins the parents of the late Nicholas Feliz Dominici, 1, Otoniel Feliz Samboy and Zoila Dominici, as they address the media, together with Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark and others at Bronx Criminal Court on Friday, Nov. 21, 2025, after Grei Mendez, the former manager of now-closed El Divino Ni\u00f1o daycare center, located on Morris Avenue in Kingsbridge Heights, The Bronx, who had previously been found guilty in federal court and had been sentenced to 45 years for charges arising from the accidental death of Nicholas from a fentanyl overdose on Sept. 15, 2023, was also found guilty by unanimous verdict by a jury on two separate New York State charges.\u00a0
Video Screenshot by S\u00edle Moloney<\/p>\n<\/a>NICOLAS FELIZ DOMINICI, Nov. 17, 2021-Sept. 15, 2023
Photo courtesy of the family of Nicholas Feliz Dominici<\/p>\n