The owner of a New York day care where a 1-year-old died from fentanyl poisoning and three other children were hospitalized pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal charges, officials said.
Grei Mendez entered the guilty plea in Manhattan to the charges, including conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death, possession with intent to distribute narcotics resulting in death, and possession with intent to distribute narcotics resulting in serious bodily injury, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. She faces a minimum of 20 years in prison and the potential of life in prison.
Mendez’s plea comes more than a year after four children were hospitalized for suspected fentanyl poisoning at the Divino Niño daycare center in the Bronx. One-year-old Nicholas Dominici died at a hospital while three other children under the age of 3 recovered after being administered the overdose-reversing drug Narcan.
Prosecutors accused Mendez along with her husband, Felix Herrera Garcia, and a co-conspirator of running a fentanyl operation inside the day care. Earlier this month, Herrera Garcia was sentenced to 45 years in prison after pleading guilty to drug charges.