{"id":48143,"date":"2025-11-22T01:31:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T01:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/48143\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T01:31:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T01:31:10","slug":"parents-of-baby-who-died-at-nyc-daycare-that-doubled-as-drug-den-cheer-guilty-verdict-we-have-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/48143\/","title":{"rendered":"Parents of baby who died at NYC daycare that doubled as drug den cheer guilty verdict: \u2018We have justice\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Bronx daycare owner and her husband were convicted of murder Friday for causing the death of a 22-month-old baby from fentanyl exposure<\/a> \u2013 a verdict little Nicholas Dominici\u2019s mom called \u201cjustice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jurors deliberated in Bronx Supreme Court for four days before convicting the couple of second-degree murder for showing \u201cdepraved indifference\u201d by hiding fentanyl under the floor boards of the Divino Ni\u00f1o Daycare where children took naps at the Kingsbridge daycare.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have our child. We still have our empty space and it will be empty for the rest of our lives\u2026 but we have justice, the justice that Nicholas deserves,\u201d Zoila Dominici said minutes after the jury found Grei Mendez and her drug dealing partner Felix Herrera Garcia guilty.<\/p>\n

The guilty verdict after a two-month trial was \u201cjustice,\u201d Nicholas\u2019 mother Zoila Dominici said outside court. James Messerschmidt<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks Nicholas\u2026 in heaven,\u201d the heartbroken mom added through a Spanish interpreter, before breaking down in tears.<\/p>\n

Three other children were also poisoned in the tragic Sept. 15, 2023 episode \u2014 including a 2-year-old boy who was rushed to the hospital and narrowly avoided death after being revived with the opioid overdose drug Narcan, authorities said.<\/p>\n

Little Nicholas Feliz Dominici died from fentanyl exposure at the Bronx daycare. Yeissy Dominici\/Facebook<\/p>\n

Mendez, 37, and Herrera Garcia, 38, were each separately charged in Manhattan federal court for Nicholas\u2019 senseless killing, and received sentences of 45 years in prison <\/a>a piece after pleading guilty to conspiring to distribute narcotics resulting in death and other charges.<\/p>\n

They now face up to life in prison in the state case on the murder charges and separate assault raps in connection with the poisoning.<\/p>\n

Felix Herrera Garcia planned to sell the deadly drugs stored at his wife\u2019s Kingsbridge daycare, prosecutors said. nypost<\/p>\n

Nicholas\u2019 parents had urged Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark to take the case all the way to trial though the feds did not, and Friday\u2019s guilty verdict came after jurors heard roughly two months of harrowing testimony.<\/p>\n

Nicholas\u2019 dad, Otoniel Feliz, hailed the final outcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point, we have justice by the federal government, the Bronx court and Justice Department. This is what we looking for. We [are] looking for justice for Nicholas,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cNicholas was a happy child at home, looking for a place to stay safe, to learn, to play when us his parents [were] looking for a better future for him, but this happened,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Grei Mendez was convicted of murder as well, and both her and her husband now face up to life in prison.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose people (were) evil. Those people (were), you know, careless about human life\u2026 they were indifferent to the life of my son, Nicholas. They were depraved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clark told reporters outside court Friday night that \u201cthis is a great day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is justice for the families,\u201d the DA said. \u201cYou send your kids to daycare. You expect them to learn and have fun and never expect that they never come home.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Bronx daycare owner and her husband were convicted of murder Friday for causing the death of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[23552,7317,57,238,9,56,63,65,64,129,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-48143","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-drug-overdoses","9":"tag-drugs","10":"tag-metro","11":"tag-murders","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-nyc-headlines","16":"tag-nyc-news","17":"tag-the-bronx","18":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}