September 20, 2023 • 41 mins
A manhunt is underway for the husband of a daycare owner charged in the death of a child in her care.
New York police responded to Divino Niño Daycare in the Bronx and found three children unconscious. Nicholas Dominici, just a year old, died from a fentanyl overdose. Two other children in the home-run daycare were revived after being administered Narcan.
A fourth child, picked up by a parent two hours before a chilling 911 call made by the owner, was taken to the hospital independently after the parent noticed the child was lethargic. That child also survived.
Police say they found a kilogram of fentanyl in a hallway closet at the daycare, stacked with the children’s play mats. They also found three kilo presses, used to package drugs. The 36-year-old owner of the daycare, and her tenant, her husband’s 41-year-old cousin Carlisto Acevedo Brito, are charged with 11 counts, including murder, manslaughter, and assault.
Joining Nancy Grace Today:
- Bernarda Villalona - NY Criminal Defense Attorney & Former Prosecutor, Villalona Law, PLLC.; @BernardaVillalona (FaceBook, Instagram, LinkdIn, TikTok, Threads), Twitter: @VillalonaLaw
- Dr. Michelle Joy- Forensic, Clinical, and Academic Psychiatrist; Author: “An Illustrated History of the Insanity Defense;” Twitter:@Westphillymorbidart
- Robert Crispin – Private Investigator, Former Federal Task Force Officer for United States Department of Justice, DEA and Miami Field Division; Former Homicide and Crimes Against Children Investigator; Facebook: Crispin Special Investigations, Inc. CrispinInvestigations.com, Facebook: Crispin Special Investigations, Inc.
- Anastasia Germain, Ed.D.- President of Childcare Professional Services LLC (early Childhood Consulting Services), Founder and Former Operator of a Licensed Childcare Center
- Dr. William Morrone – Toxicologist, Chief Medical Examiner, Bay County Michigan; Author: "American Narcan: Naloxone & Heroin-Fentanyl Associated Mortality"
- Dan Serafin – Anchor/Reporter, News 12 The Bronx/Brooklyn; IG- @dserafin12, Twitter- @DanSerafin
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Crime Stories with Nancy Greece.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
I remember the first.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Time I took the twins to play school, as we
called it, because I couldn't bring myself to say daycare.
It was at a Lutheran church about half a mile
from our house, and I was so distraught. I would
sit in the parking lot and work in my car,
(00:38):
and occasionally would go up to the window and stare
in at the ladies taking care of the children.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Even when it would rain, I'd put a towel.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Over my head and look in at them so they
would know my eyes were on them. Luckily, it was
just two days a week, and they were there. Because
I was not only working two jobs, but trying to
finish your book.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I just couldn't do it all.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
I'm just thinking about the mother and the father of
little Nikki, just one year old.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
He's dead. He was taken to daycare. There were just
a few.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Thoughts in there so he would get practically undivided attention.
And now baby Niki Dominici is dead, wait for it,
because of an overdose a fentanel.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
A baby goes to daycare so mom can work.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
She didn't have the luxury of sitting in the car
in the mini van in the parking lot and looking
in whatever she felt like it. She'd have the luxury
of getting her children out after three hours like I did.
Her child had to be there all day so she
could work. And Oh, her baby is dead from a
fentanyl overdose, and what are we gonna do about it?
Speaker 2 (02:11):
I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation
and series x SEM one eleven.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Take a listen to our friends at CBS.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Children's drawings and baby's blankets are all that's left inside
Divino Nino Daycare. This is where four babies were exposed
to fentanyl. One year old Nicholas Dominici died and three
other babies were hospitalized.
Speaker 5 (02:33):
That little piece, that little coin about the less tunic
size of a fingerael a tenth of a size of
a finginael can kill an adult, so imagine what it
could do to a child.
Speaker 6 (02:47):
Police allege one year old Nicholas Dominicici died after exposure
to drugs at Divigno Nino Daycare. Three other children were
also exposed, according to the NYPD. Police were called to
the daycare Friday afternoon.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
The children.
Speaker 6 (03:01):
According to detectives were unresponsive.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
The children, some of them lying face up on top
of each other, completely passed out an overdose of fentanyl
at a daycare. And let me add a license to
daycare that had just been qualified, searched, revalidated a few
(03:25):
days before by the city. You were hearing the voice
of the mayor, Eric Adams. Just then our friends at
CBS two and Fox five who joining me an all
star panel to make sense of what we know right now.
But first I'm going to go to not only a colleague,
but a friend, an esteemed toxicologist, chief medical examiner, Bay County, Michigan,
(03:49):
author of American Narcan, thelac'sun and Heroin fenttyl associated Mortality.
You can find him a Recovery PATHWAYLLC dot com.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
And this is a guy who has devoted.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Himself not only to his family and his faith, but
to helping people get past a fentyl addiction. He put
his money where his mouth is and actually has created
a mobile unit treating opioid addicts.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Yes, that's what he's doing in his spare time. And
he literally wrote the book American Narcan.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
So before I go to Dan Sarafin from News twelve,
Doctor William Roney.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Just explain to me what drug is.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
So powerful that the amount of the tip of your fingernail,
a fingernail clipping, can kill you an adult, much less
a baby.
Speaker 7 (04:51):
We know that Sentinel is a synthetic opioid, and it
was manufactured original for high potency pain management like hospice
and cancer and end of life. But the fentanyl now
is crossing our borders and coming in from other countries
and it's replaced heroin the substance use disorder pipelines. People
(05:20):
have been exposed to different drugs over time, and right
now fentanyl is the drug that is sweeping across America
since about twenty fifteen or sixteen, so it's about eight
years from New York to San Diego. From New York
to San Francisco, Heroin's gone and they replaced it.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Okay, wait, what is fentanyl.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
I know you're saying an oprooid, but you said a
synthetic opioid.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
That means what it's made in.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
A lab and not out in a poppy field. What
do you mean by synthetic opioid?
Speaker 7 (05:54):
Yes, the traditional heroin that we've seen for one hundred
years is distilled and extracted from poppy plants. It's a
natural substance. It's morphine, it's codeine, it's heroin, but Sentinel
is one hundred percent synthesized. But it sits in the
(06:17):
same part of the brain that heroin does and other
pain management pills. It tells the brain to stop breathing
at doses that cause overdose. These overdoses result because when
the concentration in the brain gets high enough, it shuts
(06:38):
off the drive to breathe, and that's where everybody dies.
And that's where you need to administer narcan.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
I mean, I know that you're a huge advocate of narcan.
I agree with you, but who would think you would
need narcan at a daycare? Joining me right now in
addition to doctor Willilliam Moroney, Dan Saraphin anchor reporter News
twelve joining us. You can find him at News twelve
dot com. Dan, I just can't believe it because I
(07:11):
keep every time I'm looking at baby Nikki right now,
and every time I look at him, I put my
son or my daughter's face on top of his cute
little body and I think about them. And they were
eighteen months old when I had to finish that book.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
I had a deadline and I had to have help.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
I couldn't finish it and work the other two jobs,
and it killed me to be away from them. I
would actually cry in the parking lot, but I had
to do it. And here's a mom that has to
be away from her child all day long. Who would
think that you would leave your baby with a babysitter
(07:55):
at a daycare licensed by the city and eyes of
a drug overdose as you mentioned.
Speaker 8 (08:02):
Yeah, and that daycare inspected just days before by the city,
and it was a surprise visit by the city to
make that inspection. So I mean, hearing that, you'd imagine
things are on the up and up and things are
looking good. We know Nicholas just started at that daycare.
It was just a few days in going to that
daycare when this happened on Friday afternoon. And yeah, here
(08:25):
we are now kind of trying to piece things together
with what we know so far. We learned a lot
more yesterday though, obviously, Anthony.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Guys, we're talking about a little one year old boy,
baby Nikki Nicholas Dominici.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
He's dead.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
He had not even been at this new daycare for
even a week before this happened.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Take a listen to this.
Speaker 9 (08:45):
Three children were found unresponsive when police arrived Friday. A
fourth had already been picked up by their parents. Police
say the babies were playing, eating, and sleeping inside Divino
Ninho Daycare when they were exposed to ventanyl by akilo
stored right on their playmats. Pixe eleven News spoke with
the aunt of one of the children hurt. We also
(09:08):
spoke with the mother of the two other children inside
the daycare at the time. She was very emotional, saying
that an agency referred her to the daycare so that
she can find a job.
Speaker 10 (09:19):
The children didn't wake up from naptime. First responders rushed
to the building for cardiac arrests. Sources say narcn was
used to revive at least one of them. Doctors now
testing blood and urine samples from the three surviving kids
to figure out exactly what kind of narcotics they were
exposed to. Meanwhile, parents want answers from the daycare.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
I guess they do now.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Did you hear that three children found unresponsive when police arrived.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
A fourth had already been picked up.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
The babies were playing, eating, sleeping, when they were exposed
to fentanyl by a kilo stored on their playmat.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Well, you were just hearing our friends at Pigs eleven
and WABC seven. Now take a listen to this.
Speaker 11 (10:06):
In those critical moments, detectives say, the owner of this
daycare didn't call nine to one one right away. Instead,
she called other people first, and today detectives are still
trying to figure out where that husband is. Toddlers played
eight and slept inside the Divino Nino Daycare Friday while
around them a powerful substance under their mats and hidden
(10:27):
around the apartment based daycare and equipment used to produce drugs.
Speaker 5 (10:32):
They dropped the babies off to a daycare cent too,
hoping that their children will be protected by the caregivers.
Speaker 11 (10:40):
Three toddlers were found unresponsive after being exposed to what
detectives say was fentanyl, and in the critical moments after
the discovery, authority say Gray Mendes, the owner of the daycare,
called several others before nine to one one and caught
on video shortly after Mendez's husband and several others carrying
bags of unknown items out of the apartment.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Time Stories with Nancy.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Grace, Dan Sarah than joining US News twelve.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Did I hear that correctly? That the owner and operator
Gray it's a female, Gray Mendez, thirty six years old, did.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Not call nine one one.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Immediately, she calls several other people and neighbors observed people
men carrying things out of the daycare, things like what.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
A heroine press, a kilo a fentanyl? What happened?
Speaker 8 (11:50):
Yeah, The federal complaint that was made public yesterday kind
of pointed to this timeline that starts at around two
thirty nine in the afternoon. That's when Mendes makes her first.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Call, hold on hold, on hold, on two thirty nine pm.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
That would be waking up from nap time, because they
would have lunch whatever it was, and then of course
you get sleepy after lunch, so they would doze off, right,
So that would be about time for them to be
woken up from lunch, right.
Speaker 8 (12:17):
You would imagine. So, yes, and that's when Mendes makes
the first call is to another employee whose identity we
don't know right now, of that daycarit care, a very
brief phone call. Then after that first phone call, she
makes two more phone calls, neither of them to nine
one one, Both of them to the person named in
the complaint, that's co Conspirator one, who we know is
Mendez's husband. That first call was unanswered, the second one
(12:40):
lasted just ten seconds, then finally the third, the fourth
phone call rather in this timeline is to nine one one.
That's at two forty pm, and then after that there's
several more calls to co Conspirator one. So it seems
like Mendes during this time when obviously these children are
in desperate need of help and attention medically, she's kind
(13:02):
of juggling between, you know, getting the medical help and
these other phone calls she makes to co Conspirator one,
who then eventually would arrive at the daycare before medical personnel.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Joining me is a renowned trial lawyer, BANARDA Violona. She
worked in homicide. Now she is a veteran criminal defense attorney,
former prosecutor BERNARDA. Violona. You can find her at Violona
law dot com. Bernarda. They're all going down, every one
(13:35):
of them. This is textbook felony murder. Know this woman,
this thirty six year old Gray Mendez. I'm sure she
didn't mean to kill the children, but there's so many
theories to support a murder charge for instance, the abandoned
a malignant heart, which is, for instance, I get into
(13:57):
my mini van and I Flora at one hundred a
nph and drive through a street fair. I don't set
out to kill everybody I mowed down, but I do
because I have an abandoned and malignant heart, no care
for the human life I'm destroying.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Then you've got a death.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Occurs in the commission of a felony, that being possession
of narcotics. She has narcotics, and in the middle of
that felony, this baby dies. I mean, I've got so
many ways to go, but they're all going down, and
they better not plead these people out for codefenditive testimony.
You don't need code definite testimony. We have enough based
(14:39):
on those phone calls, based on neighbors seeing men rushing
in and out, based on what was found there in
the daycare, which obviously is a front for drugs.
Speaker 12 (14:50):
Nancy, this is crazy. This case definitely shocks the conscious.
But don't worry because the prosecutors have recovered in terms
of the state charges. They're already been charged with murder
to say degree, which is a depraved different of course,
this is something that shocked the conscious. So that's why
they went with the murder to second degree.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
That's my language for abandoned and malignant heart, depraved indifference.
Speaker 12 (15:12):
But aside from that, Nancy, guess what if you're talking
about because.
Speaker 13 (15:16):
She's claiming she wasn't aware that there were narcotics inside
of the house.
Speaker 12 (15:20):
Guests who has it covered? The feds have it covered,
and the Feds have charged were conspiratory distribute narcotics resulting
in death as well as the narcotics distribution resulting in debt.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Well, hold on, Banana, I'm not saying anything that you're
saying is wrong. In fact, I think everything you just
said is right. Uh, Dan Serafin, I want to address.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
What Beranarda Vielona just said.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
She said that the owner and operator, thirty six year
old Gray Mendez, claims, I didn't know there were drugs here. Really,
where were the drugs, Dan saraf and where was the fentanyl?
Speaker 8 (15:58):
Well, well, the complaint says that that sentinel was actually
in a closet for when when it was found. On
top of that, those play mats that we know, so
I'm imagining a play mat that you kind of take
apart I guess when you're done with your daycare responsibilities.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
On top of the playmat.
Speaker 8 (16:18):
Yeah, in the closet, they're just just sitting right on
top of that play mat that I guess then that
you know, during the day would be would be taken
out and put on the mat.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
And from what I'm understanding, the children could get in there.
Speaker 8 (16:28):
Yeah, and this daycare, you know, obviously limited space there
in an apartment complex, so you know, you think of
kind of almost like a residential kind of space, you know,
with a kitchen and stuff like. That's not necessarily a large,
you know, daycare space where there's lots of open space.
I'm imagining, you know, just stuff stored wherever.
Speaker 14 (16:49):
It could be stored.
Speaker 8 (16:51):
Obviously not in a good spot from what happened from
in a terrible spot.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
But you know what to doctor William Moroney, when fit
and is placed on a surface and then a child
touches that surface, what happens.
Speaker 7 (17:06):
You have a transfer of fentanyl from a rubber or
plastic to skin and it's absorbed. So there's two ways.
This child was exposed to fentanyl in the air. It
was breathing fentanyl, and it was exposed to material that
(17:28):
would have helped transfer fentanyl into the skin. And there's
just not enough fat in a baby's body to slow
this down. It's absorbed right away.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
So like if you even touch it, oh yeah, police
on sen you don't have to ingest it, you don't
have to smoke it, you don't have to swallow it.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
If you touch it. Correct, If you touch fentanyl.
Speaker 7 (17:52):
Police on SCEEN have to double gloves. Everybody on scene
has to double glove. People have to wear masks. It
is so rare necklists to touch ventyl to products that
maintain as equipment or furniture or toys.
Speaker 14 (18:09):
It's just reckless.
Speaker 7 (18:10):
We had eight hundred and eighty four child in adolescent
deaths to fentanyl in twenty twenty one. We need policy changes.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Before I can talk about policy, I have to understand
what's happening right now. I have to be able to
apply the facts to the policy that you want enacted.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Okay. According to multiple sources.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Including The Evening Standard, a kilo a fentanyl was discovered
on top of playmats at this daycare center, where one
child dies and three others land in the hospital. A
fentanyl overdose at twelve months old Okay, Bernarda the Alona
(18:59):
joining me veterans try a lawyer, sources say. Many sources
say the fentanyl was found on top of play mats
where the children were.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Other sources say the.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Pentanyl had been hidden in the closet that the children
could get to, and of course a child is going
to go in a closet because it can that's fun
a Heidi hole. How in the world are they going
to try to.
Speaker 12 (19:29):
Get out of this, Nancy, It doesn't matter where they
found it in that house and that daycare shouldn't have
been there to begin with.
Speaker 13 (19:37):
They shouldn't have been their true in with and let's
not forget. So while she can claim I didn't know
anything about it, why did you delete over twenty one
thousand text messages between you and your husband? Like there's
more to this what we're in the shop and bats
that left that house and your husband left within two
minutes of this incident happening, Like why are these messages
(19:59):
in anything you did to conceal it actually happening. So
these people are going down, whether it's under state law
or federal law, They're both going to spend the rest
of their life in jail and hopefully they find a
husband who's still out on the run.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Now, Yeah, there's one kind of fit at all the run.
She's exactly right. I want you to hear our cut
thirty four and thirty five from ABC seven at Picks eleven.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
There's a cover up.
Speaker 15 (20:24):
One baby died, three others were revived with the help
of NARCAN. Prosecutors ay Mendez deleted twenty thousand text messages
from her phone before her arrest, but they managed to
recover them. A manhunt continues for Mendez's husband and anyone
else involved in this daycare drug den.
Speaker 9 (20:43):
Prosecutors allege the defendants tried to cover up what happened
to the children. Instead of calling nine to one one,
the owner of the daycare apparently called other people. The
first was to another employee of the daycare at approximately
two thirty nine in the afternoon.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
The second two calls were to.
Speaker 9 (21:01):
An individual who Mendez later identified as her husband. Also,
surveillance video shows Mendez's husband entered the daycare empty handed
and then exit approximately two minutes later carrying what appears
to be two shopping bags waited with contents. Right now,
police are trying to find the husband.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
Yeah, she called them to come clean out the daycare
of all the drugs and the drug paraphernalia before nine
one one got there, and in that space of time
the baby died. The baby may have been able to
have been saved if the Empts had gotten there and
given it Narcan, which they carry with them on the ambulance.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
That baby may have lived.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
But know she called her husband and all of her
drug cohorts to come clean out the place before Cox
could get there, and in that space of time, this
baby died.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Think about it.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Think about your child at age twelve months Think about it.
Think about your grandchild, your niece, your nephew twelve months old,
you go to daycare and die of an od an
overdose to Robert Crispin joining US a very well known
private investigator, former Federal Task Force officer for the United
(22:17):
States DOJ, working with DEA Drug Enforcement Agency, the Miami
Field Division, former homicide Crimes against Children, and the owner
and operator of Crispin Special Investigations. You can find them
online at Crispin Investigations dot com. Robert, how have they
managed to get back all of those texts?
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Twenty thousand texts she deleted? And you can look on
a phone and see when they were deleted. A. She's
a felon. B she killed a baby. C she's an idiot.
Speaker 14 (22:54):
So there's a program out there called Celbright, and Celbright's
a program. Now we can hook up a sell.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Wait am in it? Yes?
Speaker 3 (23:03):
Remember Robert, we talked about this during Alex Murdogg's double
murder trial.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
And the FEDS came in and they used that.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
I think it was the fanser, it may have been
the local sled South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
They used exactly what you just actually know. I remember
him on the stand.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
They brought a guy that had been in the Secret
Service and he did all of these maneuvers on Alex
Murdogg's and the deceased Paul and Maggie's phones and recovered
all sorts of incriminating evidence, and they used exactly what
you just said.
Speaker 7 (23:37):
Could you spell it right?
Speaker 2 (23:40):
I think I think it starts with ce L L
E B R I E something like that. Okay, go ahead.
Speaker 14 (23:49):
So that's that's a fantastic program for digital electronic devices,
and it allows the user who knows how to operate
that program to actually go into your device and it
will pull out all your deleted information kind of like
a computer. When you delete something, especially in your cell phone,
it's really not gone, Nancy. It's still there because there's
(24:10):
an actual hard drive that's inside your phone and it
keeps a lot of data, and it's just it's like
a circle and it just starts filling up and going
around and going around, and the average person is never
going to fill up that disk. So when you plug
that into cell right, that's right there, right in front
of your face, and there's all your incriminating evidence that
you can download backwards. It's a great program.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Also found was a press that is a mechanical device.
I don't know quite how to explain it. I do
remember the first time I ever saw one. It compresses
powder into tablets and it runs the powder through machine.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
So explain how that would have been used. You're the
former dea.
Speaker 14 (24:48):
So listen. So a kilo press makes a kilo cocaine,
which is two point two pounds or one thousand, one
thousand grams. This is a This is a major operation
that was going on there on two or three of
these presses. That is not small time. And I'm going
to tell you this is where the federal nexus is
coming in because I'm sure that these people were already
(25:09):
on the government's radar at some point. The magnitude of
the fentanyl that goes into a kilo press is not
street level. This is international distribution. This stuff's coming in
from China, it's coming in from Afghanistan, and it's coming
right across the border with everybody through the border from
Mexico getting on a bus and going to New York
(25:31):
and it's getting distributed. So that's I think where your
federal nexus is coming in, because this is an organized
distribution network these guys. You don't get to that level
of fentanyl where you have kilo presses unless you are
connected all the way backwards to probably China. And that's
probably why the FEDS are involved in. And you're going
(25:54):
to see is this systematically starts coming out and breaking
down of the facts, You're going to find a lot
more people are getting indicted related to this death. You're
going to get the courier, You're going to get the
person who brought it across the border. It's just this
is what the government does. This is why these cases
take time, but they roll it back and as soon
as this went to the FEDS, This absolutely had to
(26:15):
be part of something that was already going on.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
You know, whether you're reminded me.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
I remember my first triple homicide prosecution. I've talked about
it with you before, Jackie, because I remember the crime
scene photos.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
There was literally blood running down the gutter.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
Three young boys, teens were gunned down over drugged turf.
One of them was shot trying to jump over a
chain link fence and he hung there like a scarecrow
for I don't know how long, with his blood just
dripping down into that gutter, and I couldn't get the
Feds to help me to save my neck. You know
why I was prosecuting the murder of three young men.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
They didn't care about the three young men. They wanted
the courier.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
They wanted the supplier, and guess what about two years
later they got him and it was all tied into
your stomping grounds, Crispin, Miami and beyond. They didn't give
a flying fig about my little triple homicide case.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
And that's all I cared about. And I went to
that federal courthouse and.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
I got a hold of the guy that was allegedly
on the case, and I begged because they had info
about witnesses, and they would not give it to me.
Why because they thought it would jeopardize their drug investigation.
And no matter how much I jumped up and down
and cried and carried on, they wouldn't say a word.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
So what you're telling me is that because.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
Of this baby's death, they're going to get these purpse
Gray Mendez, her husband, whenever they can find him. The
other guys that were cleaning the place out and getting
rid of all the drugs, they're going to get them.
They're going to squeeze them until they give up the courier,
and the courier, hopefully if he's not killed, it's going
(28:06):
to give up who gave him the drugs, who gave
him the drugs, who gave him the drugs, until it
goes back probably to the cartel.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Right, is that what you're saying.
Speaker 14 (28:15):
I'm telling you absolutely that's what's going to happen. And Nancy,
the government on so many different types of narcotic investigations
are up on a wire tap or a Title three
on so many different phones all over the country and
out of the country. There's so much more to all
of this that they may already have a recording talking
about a package that got delivered that went to these people.
Speaker 7 (28:37):
It's my belief.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Man, Hey, you're having a sweet dream, because I've never
heard it being that easy, Which leads me to the
question if they did know that, How in the HG
double L did they let children go into a daycare
with fentanyl and drug presses around? Doctor Michelle Joy is
joining US forensic and clinical academic psychiatrist, author of Wait
(29:02):
for It and Illustrated History of the Insanity Defense and
See that's a good book. An Illustrated History of the
Insanity Defense.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
I could go I could read that all night long.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
And I Hint Hint for Christmas and Illustrated History of
the Insanity Defense. Wow, Doctor Michelle Joy, thank you for
being with us. How in the hay does a woman
I'm guessing she's probably a mother, I don't know that yet.
How do you have babies crawling around on your floor
(29:36):
and they're basically your props. You're using them as your
cover to cover up your drug operation. How do you
have babies crawling around on matts that are covered in fentanyl.
Speaker 16 (29:48):
I'm so glad that you asked me uh to speak
because I was literally chomping at the bit to say
something right now. And that's because you know, just listening
to the extent of the network involved in this. I mean,
we're talking about weights, right, we're talking about number of
people involved, but then we're really talking about money, right,
So this isn't you know, this isn't Oh, there was
(30:09):
a little bit of fentanyl store there. Someone was trying
to make money, you know. Incidentally, her boyfriend was involved
in this thing. No, those children were intentionally there, used
placed as props, not as humans, not even as babies,
not as anything other than props. They didn't need money
from the daycare, right, This is not an operation that
(30:30):
she needed to survive. They were literally used to cover
up the drugs. This wasn't incidental, This wasn't coincidental. This
wasn't you know, even simultaneous. This was literally using babies
to protect a cash flow.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Who would do that? What kind of mind is that?
Speaker 16 (30:45):
A sociopath? The psychopaths, the antisocial person. No matter how
we think about it, it is something as someone I'm
using similar language that is using a baby again, baby
as a tool rather than an infant, rather than a
human being, rather than someone that has a full future
ahead of them, right, there's no acknowledgment of the fact
(31:09):
that this is something other than a prop to be
used for furthering your own selfish.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Need crime stories. With me, it'sy Grace.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
I'm just thinking about something, Anastasia. I'm coming right to you.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
We've got a credible childcare professional with us. I'm just
thinking about something, doctor Michelle. Doctor Michelle Joy is joining us.
I remember on one case I prosecuted, I went into
I've been there many many times. On other cases, I
went into a woman's home and she was running a daycare.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
And I went into her apartment. It was in a housing.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Project, and there were about eleven or twelve babies, little babies,
all just laying on the floor, directly on a piece
of carpet, and they were all quiet. And I was
amazed because John, David and Elsa were like all over everything.
(32:26):
Now this was before I had my children, so I didn't.
It just struck me as wrong. I didn't really know
any better. But a TV was going with some game
show or something on it, and I went into lady's kitchen.
She couldn't have been over twenty one. I went into
the lady's kitchen and sat down at the kitchen table
to talk to her.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
First of all, I had to.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
Sneak in, because nobody wants to be seen with the prosecutor.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
I had to sneak in the back way.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
I got in and got into the kitchen and I
was sitting there waiting for her, and I looked I
just felt movement.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
I looked up.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
There had to be eighty or ninety roaches, the little
bitty nasty ones going up and down the wall right
beside me. And I'm like, oh, and what can I do?
Speaker 2 (33:13):
I couldn't scream, lady, you got roaches all over.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
So I sit there and talked to her and finished
the interview and got up and left. I said, how
many babies are here? Are those all yours? And she said,
oh no, I run a daycare. I oh, okay, and left.
I'm like, I take care my rear end, which I
guess doctor Joyce she didn't think there was a problem
(33:36):
with roaches crawling all over the walls and those babies
laying right on the floor. I mean, I don't even
let my husband say curse word in front of the twins.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Or it's hell to pay h E double l he said.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
One curse word when they were like three and I
had to make a big production of washing his mouth
out with soap, like putting a piece of soap on
his lips, and he's going, hey, gres grass crust, and.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Wait, what are people thinking? What kind of mind is that?
You know?
Speaker 16 (34:04):
It's It's like I said, it's not even just a
disregard in a censinnati. I don't mean legally rate. These
are just people that truly are not not having empathy,
not understanding another person, let alone. Again, I keep emphasizing
baby as something where they value of something where the future.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
I guess, sees them as objects, not as little babies.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
Guys with me right now.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
Anastasia Germaine, President of Childcare Professional Services LLC, founder and
former operator of a licensed childcare center, and you can
find her at CHILDCAREPS dot com, Repeat CHILDCAREPS dot com. Anastasia,
thank you so much for being with us. How in
(34:50):
the hey did this place just get in this right,
Dan Sarafin, They just got re licensed the week.
Speaker 8 (34:58):
Before, inspected get by the city.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
The one maybe dies and three others have ods.
Speaker 17 (35:05):
This case is so disheartening. One thing that stands out
during the application process the daycare owner, would Miss Mendez
would have had to submit a diagram of all the
rooms of the house, including those especially those used for
daycare purposes. So the questions I would have is was
the Office of Children and Family Services made aware at
(35:28):
the time of licensing or thereafter that a room was
being rented? Was this individual renting the room mister Brido.
Was he subjected to the same background and reference checks
that the owner and childcare staff were subjected to? Was
he passing through rooms used for the daycare center? Whitters
(35:50):
that childcare centers have to sign in and out, they
have to put the date in time?
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Okay, hold on, Hold on with me as Anna Station, Germaine. Yeah,
the last thing I want with my chill ldren in
a daycare is to have some male who's no offense
men on the panel, but it's usually a man that
sexually molests children. The last thing I want is some
guy I don't even know about trumping through in and
(36:14):
out with my babies.
Speaker 17 (36:15):
There no exactly and where the parents even aware that
there was a room being rented? Did mister Brito have
to adhere to any of these state regulations or center policies?
And I think It's also worth noting that the New
York Health Commissioner, doctor Ashwin Vossen, had said that at
the time of the incident, inspectors were not trained in
(36:37):
what to look for in terms of fentanyl, but that
maybe they should be. I don't think that's maybe. I
think that's a definite.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
That is awful.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
We sent out inspectors, but they didn't know what to
do really exactly.
Speaker 17 (36:51):
If they saw the press, if they saw the fedanel,
what they know? What they're looking at.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
Guys, I'm listening to Anastasia Germaine, President of Childcare Professional
Services LLC at childcareps dot com. I want you to
take a listen to our cut for our friends at
CBS two.
Speaker 4 (37:10):
Through tears, Dominici's parents told us their youngest son had
only been at the daycare a week since his death.
The NYPD says they found three kilo presses used to
package narcotics in the daycare, as well as a kilo
of fentanyl.
Speaker 18 (37:24):
It was laid underneath a matt when his children had
been sleeping early.
Speaker 4 (37:27):
Over the weekend. Police arrested the daycare owner, Gray Mendez,
and her husband's cousin, Carlisto Savito, Brito, who was renting
a room inside the home based childcare center. Neither had
any priors. They're now facing murder and drug charges.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
Doctor William Maroney joining me, renowned toat psychologist, Doctor Moroney.
Isn't it true that if the EMTs had arrived earlier
and this little baby even had a pulse, I mean,
apparently they immediately suspected fentnol. I don't know why what
there was that they saw that the inspectors didn't see.
(38:05):
They knew immediately that there was a fentyl od If
they had gotten there in time, Doctor Moroney, and the
child was still breathing, there's a very strong possibility that
baby could have been saved with narcnlight.
Speaker 7 (38:20):
The other babies were unquestionably. When those people are trained
walk in, they look and they see, They sweep the mouth,
they check the pulse. They hear for breathing or no
breathing or shallow breathing, and sentinels at the top of
the list. If the mouth is clear and there's no choking,
(38:43):
if there's no food around, you see pin point pupils.
Pinpoint pupils in fentanyl exposure, possibly gurgling a limp body
and cold skin with blue lips and blue nails. You
see that. The first thing you say is narcotic overdose,
(39:06):
and you get that sentinel there right away. It comes
with the police, It comes with the fire, It comes
with the EMTs. Every person that would have been a
first responder would have had narcin every single one that
would have walked through that door. They just weren't called
soon enough.
Speaker 3 (39:23):
You're never gonna believe who the first responders were.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Take a listener, our cut thirty Fox five.
Speaker 19 (39:28):
Armed with a search warrant, NYPD detectives and DEA agents
made a startling discovery there.
Speaker 18 (39:34):
We just called it a kilogram of fentanyl in an
area that was used to give the children naps. It
was laid underneath a matt where the children had been
sleeping earlier.
Speaker 19 (39:43):
DEA agents were among the first responders to the Divino
Nino daycare Center, which was actually inside Mendez's apartment. Authority
say they also found three kilo presses in the place.
Speaker 3 (39:54):
Back to Dan Sarafin joining us from News twelve, Dan
every saying that Robert Crispin said about how this place
had likely been under surveillance has to be true because
they are.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
Among the first responders.
Speaker 3 (40:10):
Was the DEA, right, And I mean when my mom fell,
when my mom fail in the shower not long ago
and we called nine one one, the DEA.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
Didn't show up.
Speaker 8 (40:19):
And in that criminal complaint that was released yesterday kind
kind of tells that story also of surveillance and even
mentioning surveillance footage. As you mentioned before, that co conspirator
one who we know is Gray Mendez, his husband. After
that phone call that she made, one of the first
phone calls she made before nine to one one to him,
he shows up at that daycare before first responders do,
(40:41):
empty handed, and that complaint said surveillance footage shows him
walking in the front door empty handed and then walking
out the back door just two minutes later with those
two huge bags that I think you mentioned earlier that
they said carrying two shopping bags waited with contents. We
can probably imagine what's inside of those bags. So video
obviously the law enforcement operation into the investigation, talking to
(41:05):
people around that area. Yeah, this was something that they
seem to be right on top of from the minute
that this happened.
Speaker 3 (41:13):
Well, they're all going to hell, but I want them
to have a nice long life. Without parole, behind bars,
as a little pit stop to a burning eternity, we
wait as justice unfolds.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
Good las night,
Crime Stories with Nancy Greece.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
I remember the first.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Time I took the twins to play school, as we
called it, because I couldn't bring myself to say daycare.
It was at a Lutheran church about half a mile
from our house, and I was so distraught. I would
sit in the parking lot and work in my car,
(00:38):
and occasionally would go up to the window and stare
in at the ladies taking care of the children.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Even when it would rain, I'd put a towel.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Over my head and look in at them so they
would know my eyes were on them. Luckily, it was
just two days a week, and they were there. Because
I was not only working two jobs, but trying to
finish your book.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I just couldn't do it all.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
I'm just thinking about the mother and the father of
little Nikki, just one year old.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
He's dead. He was taken to daycare. There were just
a few.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Thoughts in there so he would get practically undivided attention.
And now baby Niki Dominici is dead, wait for it,
because of an overdose a fentanel.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
A baby goes to daycare so mom can work.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
She didn't have the luxury of sitting in the car
in the mini van in the parking lot and looking
in whatever she felt like it. She'd have the luxury
of getting her children out after three hours like I did.
Her child had to be there all day so she
could work. And Oh, her baby is dead from a
fentanyl overdose, and what are we gonna do about it?
Speaker 2 (02:11):
I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation
and series x SEM one eleven.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Take a listen to our friends at CBS.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Children's drawings and baby's blankets are all that's left inside
Divino Nino Daycare. This is where four babies were exposed
to fentanyl. One year old Nicholas Dominici died and three
other babies were hospitalized.
Speaker 5 (02:33):
That little piece, that little coin about the less tunic
size of a fingerael a tenth of a size of
a finginael can kill an adult, so imagine what it
could do to a child.
Speaker 6 (02:47):
Police allege one year old Nicholas Dominicici died after exposure
to drugs at Divigno Nino Daycare. Three other children were
also exposed, according to the NYPD. Police were called to
the daycare Friday afternoon.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
The children.
Speaker 6 (03:01):
According to detectives were unresponsive.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
The children, some of them lying face up on top
of each other, completely passed out an overdose of fentanyl
at a daycare. And let me add a license to
daycare that had just been qualified, searched, revalidated a few
(03:25):
days before by the city. You were hearing the voice
of the mayor, Eric Adams. Just then our friends at
CBS two and Fox five who joining me an all
star panel to make sense of what we know right now.
But first I'm going to go to not only a colleague,
but a friend, an esteemed toxicologist, chief medical examiner, Bay County, Michigan,
(03:49):
author of American Narcan, thelac'sun and Heroin fenttyl associated Mortality.
You can find him a Recovery PATHWAYLLC dot com.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
And this is a guy who has devoted.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Himself not only to his family and his faith, but
to helping people get past a fentyl addiction. He put
his money where his mouth is and actually has created
a mobile unit treating opioid addicts.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Yes, that's what he's doing in his spare time. And
he literally wrote the book American Narcan.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
So before I go to Dan Sarafin from News twelve,
Doctor William Roney.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Just explain to me what drug is.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
So powerful that the amount of the tip of your fingernail,
a fingernail clipping, can kill you an adult, much less
a baby.
Speaker 7 (04:51):
We know that Sentinel is a synthetic opioid, and it
was manufactured original for high potency pain management like hospice
and cancer and end of life. But the fentanyl now
is crossing our borders and coming in from other countries
and it's replaced heroin the substance use disorder pipelines. People
(05:20):
have been exposed to different drugs over time, and right
now fentanyl is the drug that is sweeping across America
since about twenty fifteen or sixteen, so it's about eight
years from New York to San Diego. From New York
to San Francisco, Heroin's gone and they replaced it.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Okay, wait, what is fentanyl.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
I know you're saying an oprooid, but you said a
synthetic opioid.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
That means what it's made in.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
A lab and not out in a poppy field. What
do you mean by synthetic opioid?
Speaker 7 (05:54):
Yes, the traditional heroin that we've seen for one hundred
years is distilled and extracted from poppy plants. It's a
natural substance. It's morphine, it's codeine, it's heroin, but Sentinel
is one hundred percent synthesized. But it sits in the
(06:17):
same part of the brain that heroin does and other
pain management pills. It tells the brain to stop breathing
at doses that cause overdose. These overdoses result because when
the concentration in the brain gets high enough, it shuts
(06:38):
off the drive to breathe, and that's where everybody dies.
And that's where you need to administer narcan.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
I mean, I know that you're a huge advocate of narcan.
I agree with you, but who would think you would
need narcan at a daycare? Joining me right now in
addition to doctor Willilliam Moroney, Dan Saraphin anchor reporter News
twelve joining us. You can find him at News twelve
dot com. Dan, I just can't believe it because I
(07:11):
keep every time I'm looking at baby Nikki right now,
and every time I look at him, I put my
son or my daughter's face on top of his cute
little body and I think about them. And they were
eighteen months old when I had to finish that book.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
I had a deadline and I had to have help.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
I couldn't finish it and work the other two jobs,
and it killed me to be away from them. I
would actually cry in the parking lot, but I had
to do it. And here's a mom that has to
be away from her child all day long. Who would
think that you would leave your baby with a babysitter
(07:55):
at a daycare licensed by the city and eyes of
a drug overdose as you mentioned.
Speaker 8 (08:02):
Yeah, and that daycare inspected just days before by the city,
and it was a surprise visit by the city to
make that inspection. So I mean, hearing that, you'd imagine
things are on the up and up and things are
looking good. We know Nicholas just started at that daycare.
It was just a few days in going to that
daycare when this happened on Friday afternoon. And yeah, here
(08:25):
we are now kind of trying to piece things together
with what we know so far. We learned a lot
more yesterday though, obviously, Anthony.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Guys, we're talking about a little one year old boy,
baby Nikki Nicholas Dominici.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
He's dead.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
He had not even been at this new daycare for
even a week before this happened.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Take a listen to this.
Speaker 9 (08:45):
Three children were found unresponsive when police arrived Friday. A
fourth had already been picked up by their parents. Police
say the babies were playing, eating, and sleeping inside Divino
Ninho Daycare when they were exposed to ventanyl by akilo
stored right on their playmats. Pixe eleven News spoke with
the aunt of one of the children hurt. We also
(09:08):
spoke with the mother of the two other children inside
the daycare at the time. She was very emotional, saying
that an agency referred her to the daycare so that
she can find a job.
Speaker 10 (09:19):
The children didn't wake up from naptime. First responders rushed
to the building for cardiac arrests. Sources say narcn was
used to revive at least one of them. Doctors now
testing blood and urine samples from the three surviving kids
to figure out exactly what kind of narcotics they were
exposed to. Meanwhile, parents want answers from the daycare.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
I guess they do now.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Did you hear that three children found unresponsive when police arrived.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
A fourth had already been picked up.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
The babies were playing, eating, sleeping, when they were exposed
to fentanyl by a kilo stored on their playmat.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Well, you were just hearing our friends at Pigs eleven
and WABC seven. Now take a listen to this.
Speaker 11 (10:06):
In those critical moments, detectives say, the owner of this
daycare didn't call nine to one one right away. Instead,
she called other people first, and today detectives are still
trying to figure out where that husband is. Toddlers played
eight and slept inside the Divino Nino Daycare Friday while
around them a powerful substance under their mats and hidden
(10:27):
around the apartment based daycare and equipment used to produce drugs.
Speaker 5 (10:32):
They dropped the babies off to a daycare cent too,
hoping that their children will be protected by the caregivers.
Speaker 11 (10:40):
Three toddlers were found unresponsive after being exposed to what
detectives say was fentanyl, and in the critical moments after
the discovery, authority say Gray Mendes, the owner of the daycare,
called several others before nine to one one and caught
on video shortly after Mendez's husband and several others carrying
bags of unknown items out of the apartment.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Time Stories with Nancy.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Grace, Dan Sarah than joining US News twelve.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Did I hear that correctly? That the owner and operator
Gray it's a female, Gray Mendez, thirty six years old, did.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Not call nine one one.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Immediately, she calls several other people and neighbors observed people
men carrying things out of the daycare, things like what.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
A heroine press, a kilo a fentanyl? What happened?
Speaker 8 (11:50):
Yeah, The federal complaint that was made public yesterday kind
of pointed to this timeline that starts at around two
thirty nine in the afternoon. That's when Mendes makes her first.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Call, hold on hold, on hold, on two thirty nine pm.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
That would be waking up from nap time, because they
would have lunch whatever it was, and then of course
you get sleepy after lunch, so they would doze off, right,
So that would be about time for them to be
woken up from lunch, right.
Speaker 8 (12:17):
You would imagine. So, yes, and that's when Mendes makes
the first call is to another employee whose identity we
don't know right now, of that daycarit care, a very
brief phone call. Then after that first phone call, she
makes two more phone calls, neither of them to nine
one one, Both of them to the person named in
the complaint, that's co Conspirator one, who we know is
Mendez's husband. That first call was unanswered, the second one
(12:40):
lasted just ten seconds, then finally the third, the fourth
phone call rather in this timeline is to nine one one.
That's at two forty pm, and then after that there's
several more calls to co Conspirator one. So it seems
like Mendes during this time when obviously these children are
in desperate need of help and attention medically, she's kind
(13:02):
of juggling between, you know, getting the medical help and
these other phone calls she makes to co Conspirator one,
who then eventually would arrive at the daycare before medical personnel.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Joining me is a renowned trial lawyer, BANARDA Violona. She
worked in homicide. Now she is a veteran criminal defense attorney,
former prosecutor BERNARDA. Violona. You can find her at Violona
law dot com. Bernarda. They're all going down, every one
(13:35):
of them. This is textbook felony murder. Know this woman,
this thirty six year old Gray Mendez. I'm sure she
didn't mean to kill the children, but there's so many
theories to support a murder charge for instance, the abandoned
a malignant heart, which is, for instance, I get into
(13:57):
my mini van and I Flora at one hundred a
nph and drive through a street fair. I don't set
out to kill everybody I mowed down, but I do
because I have an abandoned and malignant heart, no care
for the human life I'm destroying.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Then you've got a death.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Occurs in the commission of a felony, that being possession
of narcotics. She has narcotics, and in the middle of
that felony, this baby dies. I mean, I've got so
many ways to go, but they're all going down, and
they better not plead these people out for codefenditive testimony.
You don't need code definite testimony. We have enough based
(14:39):
on those phone calls, based on neighbors seeing men rushing
in and out, based on what was found there in
the daycare, which obviously is a front for drugs.
Speaker 12 (14:50):
Nancy, this is crazy. This case definitely shocks the conscious.
But don't worry because the prosecutors have recovered in terms
of the state charges. They're already been charged with murder
to say degree, which is a depraved different of course,
this is something that shocked the conscious. So that's why
they went with the murder to second degree.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
That's my language for abandoned and malignant heart, depraved indifference.
Speaker 12 (15:12):
But aside from that, Nancy, guess what if you're talking
about because.
Speaker 13 (15:16):
She's claiming she wasn't aware that there were narcotics inside
of the house.
Speaker 12 (15:20):
Guests who has it covered? The feds have it covered,
and the Feds have charged were conspiratory distribute narcotics resulting
in death as well as the narcotics distribution resulting in debt.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Well, hold on, Banana, I'm not saying anything that you're
saying is wrong. In fact, I think everything you just
said is right. Uh, Dan Serafin, I want to address.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
What Beranarda Vielona just said.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
She said that the owner and operator, thirty six year
old Gray Mendez, claims, I didn't know there were drugs here. Really,
where were the drugs, Dan saraf and where was the fentanyl?
Speaker 8 (15:58):
Well, well, the complaint says that that sentinel was actually
in a closet for when when it was found. On
top of that, those play mats that we know, so
I'm imagining a play mat that you kind of take
apart I guess when you're done with your daycare responsibilities.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
On top of the playmat.
Speaker 8 (16:18):
Yeah, in the closet, they're just just sitting right on
top of that play mat that I guess then that
you know, during the day would be would be taken
out and put on the mat.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
And from what I'm understanding, the children could get in there.
Speaker 8 (16:28):
Yeah, and this daycare, you know, obviously limited space there
in an apartment complex, so you know, you think of
kind of almost like a residential kind of space, you know,
with a kitchen and stuff like. That's not necessarily a large,
you know, daycare space where there's lots of open space.
I'm imagining, you know, just stuff stored wherever.
Speaker 14 (16:49):
It could be stored.
Speaker 8 (16:51):
Obviously not in a good spot from what happened from
in a terrible spot.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
But you know what to doctor William Moroney, when fit
and is placed on a surface and then a child
touches that surface, what happens.
Speaker 7 (17:06):
You have a transfer of fentanyl from a rubber or
plastic to skin and it's absorbed. So there's two ways.
This child was exposed to fentanyl in the air. It
was breathing fentanyl, and it was exposed to material that
(17:28):
would have helped transfer fentanyl into the skin. And there's
just not enough fat in a baby's body to slow
this down. It's absorbed right away.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
So like if you even touch it, oh yeah, police
on sen you don't have to ingest it, you don't
have to smoke it, you don't have to swallow it.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
If you touch it. Correct, If you touch fentanyl.
Speaker 7 (17:52):
Police on SCEEN have to double gloves. Everybody on scene
has to double glove. People have to wear masks. It
is so rare necklists to touch ventyl to products that
maintain as equipment or furniture or toys.
Speaker 14 (18:09):
It's just reckless.
Speaker 7 (18:10):
We had eight hundred and eighty four child in adolescent
deaths to fentanyl in twenty twenty one. We need policy changes.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Before I can talk about policy, I have to understand
what's happening right now. I have to be able to
apply the facts to the policy that you want enacted.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Okay. According to multiple sources.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Including The Evening Standard, a kilo a fentanyl was discovered
on top of playmats at this daycare center, where one
child dies and three others land in the hospital. A
fentanyl overdose at twelve months old Okay, Bernarda the Alona
(18:59):
joining me veterans try a lawyer, sources say. Many sources
say the fentanyl was found on top of play mats
where the children were.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Other sources say the.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Pentanyl had been hidden in the closet that the children
could get to, and of course a child is going
to go in a closet because it can that's fun
a Heidi hole. How in the world are they going
to try to.
Speaker 12 (19:29):
Get out of this, Nancy, It doesn't matter where they
found it in that house and that daycare shouldn't have
been there to begin with.
Speaker 13 (19:37):
They shouldn't have been their true in with and let's
not forget. So while she can claim I didn't know
anything about it, why did you delete over twenty one
thousand text messages between you and your husband? Like there's
more to this what we're in the shop and bats
that left that house and your husband left within two
minutes of this incident happening, Like why are these messages
(19:59):
in anything you did to conceal it actually happening. So
these people are going down, whether it's under state law
or federal law, They're both going to spend the rest
of their life in jail and hopefully they find a
husband who's still out on the run.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Now, Yeah, there's one kind of fit at all the run.
She's exactly right. I want you to hear our cut
thirty four and thirty five from ABC seven at Picks eleven.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
There's a cover up.
Speaker 15 (20:24):
One baby died, three others were revived with the help
of NARCAN. Prosecutors ay Mendez deleted twenty thousand text messages
from her phone before her arrest, but they managed to
recover them. A manhunt continues for Mendez's husband and anyone
else involved in this daycare drug den.
Speaker 9 (20:43):
Prosecutors allege the defendants tried to cover up what happened
to the children. Instead of calling nine to one one,
the owner of the daycare apparently called other people. The
first was to another employee of the daycare at approximately
two thirty nine in the afternoon.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
The second two calls were to.
Speaker 9 (21:01):
An individual who Mendez later identified as her husband. Also,
surveillance video shows Mendez's husband entered the daycare empty handed
and then exit approximately two minutes later carrying what appears
to be two shopping bags waited with contents. Right now,
police are trying to find the husband.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
Yeah, she called them to come clean out the daycare
of all the drugs and the drug paraphernalia before nine
one one got there, and in that space of time
the baby died. The baby may have been able to
have been saved if the Empts had gotten there and
given it Narcan, which they carry with them on the ambulance.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
That baby may have lived.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
But know she called her husband and all of her
drug cohorts to come clean out the place before Cox
could get there, and in that space of time, this
baby died.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Think about it.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Think about your child at age twelve months Think about it.
Think about your grandchild, your niece, your nephew twelve months old,
you go to daycare and die of an od an
overdose to Robert Crispin joining US a very well known
private investigator, former Federal Task Force officer for the United
(22:17):
States DOJ, working with DEA Drug Enforcement Agency, the Miami
Field Division, former homicide Crimes against Children, and the owner
and operator of Crispin Special Investigations. You can find them
online at Crispin Investigations dot com. Robert, how have they
managed to get back all of those texts?
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Twenty thousand texts she deleted? And you can look on
a phone and see when they were deleted. A. She's
a felon. B she killed a baby. C she's an idiot.
Speaker 14 (22:54):
So there's a program out there called Celbright, and Celbright's
a program. Now we can hook up a sell.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Wait am in it? Yes?
Speaker 3 (23:03):
Remember Robert, we talked about this during Alex Murdogg's double
murder trial.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
And the FEDS came in and they used that.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
I think it was the fanser, it may have been
the local sled South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
They used exactly what you just actually know. I remember
him on the stand.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
They brought a guy that had been in the Secret
Service and he did all of these maneuvers on Alex
Murdogg's and the deceased Paul and Maggie's phones and recovered
all sorts of incriminating evidence, and they used exactly what
you just said.
Speaker 7 (23:37):
Could you spell it right?
Speaker 2 (23:40):
I think I think it starts with ce L L
E B R I E something like that. Okay, go ahead.
Speaker 14 (23:49):
So that's that's a fantastic program for digital electronic devices,
and it allows the user who knows how to operate
that program to actually go into your device and it
will pull out all your deleted information kind of like
a computer. When you delete something, especially in your cell phone,
it's really not gone, Nancy. It's still there because there's
(24:10):
an actual hard drive that's inside your phone and it
keeps a lot of data, and it's just it's like
a circle and it just starts filling up and going
around and going around, and the average person is never
going to fill up that disk. So when you plug
that into cell right, that's right there, right in front
of your face, and there's all your incriminating evidence that
you can download backwards. It's a great program.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Also found was a press that is a mechanical device.
I don't know quite how to explain it. I do
remember the first time I ever saw one. It compresses
powder into tablets and it runs the powder through machine.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
So explain how that would have been used. You're the
former dea.
Speaker 14 (24:48):
So listen. So a kilo press makes a kilo cocaine,
which is two point two pounds or one thousand, one
thousand grams. This is a This is a major operation
that was going on there on two or three of
these presses. That is not small time. And I'm going
to tell you this is where the federal nexus is
coming in because I'm sure that these people were already
(25:09):
on the government's radar at some point. The magnitude of
the fentanyl that goes into a kilo press is not
street level. This is international distribution. This stuff's coming in
from China, it's coming in from Afghanistan, and it's coming
right across the border with everybody through the border from
Mexico getting on a bus and going to New York
(25:31):
and it's getting distributed. So that's I think where your
federal nexus is coming in, because this is an organized
distribution network these guys. You don't get to that level
of fentanyl where you have kilo presses unless you are
connected all the way backwards to probably China. And that's
probably why the FEDS are involved in. And you're going
(25:54):
to see is this systematically starts coming out and breaking
down of the facts, You're going to find a lot
more people are getting indicted related to this death. You're
going to get the courier, You're going to get the
person who brought it across the border. It's just this
is what the government does. This is why these cases
take time, but they roll it back and as soon
as this went to the FEDS, This absolutely had to
(26:15):
be part of something that was already going on.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
You know, whether you're reminded me.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
I remember my first triple homicide prosecution. I've talked about
it with you before, Jackie, because I remember the crime
scene photos.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
There was literally blood running down the gutter.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
Three young boys, teens were gunned down over drugged turf.
One of them was shot trying to jump over a
chain link fence and he hung there like a scarecrow
for I don't know how long, with his blood just
dripping down into that gutter, and I couldn't get the
Feds to help me to save my neck. You know
why I was prosecuting the murder of three young men.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
They didn't care about the three young men. They wanted
the courier.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
They wanted the supplier, and guess what about two years
later they got him and it was all tied into
your stomping grounds, Crispin, Miami and beyond. They didn't give
a flying fig about my little triple homicide case.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
And that's all I cared about. And I went to
that federal courthouse and.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
I got a hold of the guy that was allegedly
on the case, and I begged because they had info
about witnesses, and they would not give it to me.
Why because they thought it would jeopardize their drug investigation.
And no matter how much I jumped up and down
and cried and carried on, they wouldn't say a word.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
So what you're telling me is that because.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
Of this baby's death, they're going to get these purpse
Gray Mendez, her husband, whenever they can find him. The
other guys that were cleaning the place out and getting
rid of all the drugs, they're going to get them.
They're going to squeeze them until they give up the courier,
and the courier, hopefully if he's not killed, it's going
(28:06):
to give up who gave him the drugs, who gave
him the drugs, who gave him the drugs, until it
goes back probably to the cartel.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Right, is that what you're saying.
Speaker 14 (28:15):
I'm telling you absolutely that's what's going to happen. And Nancy,
the government on so many different types of narcotic investigations
are up on a wire tap or a Title three
on so many different phones all over the country and
out of the country. There's so much more to all
of this that they may already have a recording talking
about a package that got delivered that went to these people.
Speaker 7 (28:37):
It's my belief.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Man, Hey, you're having a sweet dream, because I've never
heard it being that easy, Which leads me to the
question if they did know that, How in the HG
double L did they let children go into a daycare
with fentanyl and drug presses around? Doctor Michelle Joy is
joining US forensic and clinical academic psychiatrist, author of Wait
(29:02):
for It and Illustrated History of the Insanity Defense and
See that's a good book. An Illustrated History of the
Insanity Defense.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
I could go I could read that all night long.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
And I Hint Hint for Christmas and Illustrated History of
the Insanity Defense. Wow, Doctor Michelle Joy, thank you for
being with us. How in the hay does a woman
I'm guessing she's probably a mother, I don't know that yet.
How do you have babies crawling around on your floor
(29:36):
and they're basically your props. You're using them as your
cover to cover up your drug operation. How do you
have babies crawling around on matts that are covered in fentanyl.
Speaker 16 (29:48):
I'm so glad that you asked me uh to speak
because I was literally chomping at the bit to say
something right now. And that's because you know, just listening
to the extent of the network involved in this. I mean,
we're talking about weights, right, we're talking about number of
people involved, but then we're really talking about money, right,
So this isn't you know, this isn't Oh, there was
(30:09):
a little bit of fentanyl store there. Someone was trying
to make money, you know. Incidentally, her boyfriend was involved
in this thing. No, those children were intentionally there, used
placed as props, not as humans, not even as babies,
not as anything other than props. They didn't need money
from the daycare, right, This is not an operation that
(30:30):
she needed to survive. They were literally used to cover
up the drugs. This wasn't incidental, This wasn't coincidental. This
wasn't you know, even simultaneous. This was literally using babies
to protect a cash flow.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Who would do that? What kind of mind is that?
Speaker 16 (30:45):
A sociopath? The psychopaths, the antisocial person. No matter how
we think about it, it is something as someone I'm
using similar language that is using a baby again, baby
as a tool rather than an infant, rather than a
human being, rather than someone that has a full future
ahead of them, right, there's no acknowledgment of the fact
(31:09):
that this is something other than a prop to be
used for furthering your own selfish.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Need crime stories. With me, it'sy Grace.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
I'm just thinking about something, Anastasia. I'm coming right to you.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
We've got a credible childcare professional with us. I'm just
thinking about something, doctor Michelle. Doctor Michelle Joy is joining us.
I remember on one case I prosecuted, I went into
I've been there many many times. On other cases, I
went into a woman's home and she was running a daycare.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
And I went into her apartment. It was in a housing.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Project, and there were about eleven or twelve babies, little babies,
all just laying on the floor, directly on a piece
of carpet, and they were all quiet. And I was
amazed because John, David and Elsa were like all over everything.
(32:26):
Now this was before I had my children, so I didn't.
It just struck me as wrong. I didn't really know
any better. But a TV was going with some game
show or something on it, and I went into lady's kitchen.
She couldn't have been over twenty one. I went into
the lady's kitchen and sat down at the kitchen table
to talk to her.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
First of all, I had to.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
Sneak in, because nobody wants to be seen with the prosecutor.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
I had to sneak in the back way.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
I got in and got into the kitchen and I
was sitting there waiting for her, and I looked I
just felt movement.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
I looked up.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
There had to be eighty or ninety roaches, the little
bitty nasty ones going up and down the wall right
beside me. And I'm like, oh, and what can I do?
Speaker 2 (33:13):
I couldn't scream, lady, you got roaches all over.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
So I sit there and talked to her and finished
the interview and got up and left. I said, how
many babies are here? Are those all yours? And she said,
oh no, I run a daycare. I oh, okay, and left.
I'm like, I take care my rear end, which I
guess doctor Joyce she didn't think there was a problem
(33:36):
with roaches crawling all over the walls and those babies
laying right on the floor. I mean, I don't even
let my husband say curse word in front of the twins.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Or it's hell to pay h E double l he said.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
One curse word when they were like three and I
had to make a big production of washing his mouth
out with soap, like putting a piece of soap on
his lips, and he's going, hey, gres grass crust, and.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Wait, what are people thinking? What kind of mind is that?
You know?
Speaker 16 (34:04):
It's It's like I said, it's not even just a
disregard in a censinnati. I don't mean legally rate. These
are just people that truly are not not having empathy,
not understanding another person, let alone. Again, I keep emphasizing
baby as something where they value of something where the future.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
I guess, sees them as objects, not as little babies.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
Guys with me right now.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
Anastasia Germaine, President of Childcare Professional Services LLC, founder and
former operator of a licensed childcare center, and you can
find her at CHILDCAREPS dot com, Repeat CHILDCAREPS dot com. Anastasia,
thank you so much for being with us. How in
(34:50):
the hey did this place just get in this right,
Dan Sarafin, They just got re licensed the week.
Speaker 8 (34:58):
Before, inspected get by the city.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
The one maybe dies and three others have ods.
Speaker 17 (35:05):
This case is so disheartening. One thing that stands out
during the application process the daycare owner, would Miss Mendez
would have had to submit a diagram of all the
rooms of the house, including those especially those used for
daycare purposes. So the questions I would have is was
the Office of Children and Family Services made aware at
(35:28):
the time of licensing or thereafter that a room was
being rented? Was this individual renting the room mister Brido.
Was he subjected to the same background and reference checks
that the owner and childcare staff were subjected to? Was
he passing through rooms used for the daycare center? Whitters
(35:50):
that childcare centers have to sign in and out, they
have to put the date in time?
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Okay, hold on, Hold on with me as Anna Station, Germaine. Yeah,
the last thing I want with my chill ldren in
a daycare is to have some male who's no offense
men on the panel, but it's usually a man that
sexually molests children. The last thing I want is some
guy I don't even know about trumping through in and
(36:14):
out with my babies.
Speaker 17 (36:15):
There no exactly and where the parents even aware that
there was a room being rented? Did mister Brito have
to adhere to any of these state regulations or center policies?
And I think It's also worth noting that the New
York Health Commissioner, doctor Ashwin Vossen, had said that at
the time of the incident, inspectors were not trained in
(36:37):
what to look for in terms of fentanyl, but that
maybe they should be. I don't think that's maybe. I
think that's a definite.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
That is awful.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
We sent out inspectors, but they didn't know what to
do really exactly.
Speaker 17 (36:51):
If they saw the press, if they saw the fedanel,
what they know? What they're looking at.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
Guys, I'm listening to Anastasia Germaine, President of Childcare Professional
Services LLC at childcareps dot com. I want you to
take a listen to our cut for our friends at
CBS two.
Speaker 4 (37:10):
Through tears, Dominici's parents told us their youngest son had
only been at the daycare a week since his death.
The NYPD says they found three kilo presses used to
package narcotics in the daycare, as well as a kilo
of fentanyl.
Speaker 18 (37:24):
It was laid underneath a matt when his children had
been sleeping early.
Speaker 4 (37:27):
Over the weekend. Police arrested the daycare owner, Gray Mendez,
and her husband's cousin, Carlisto Savito, Brito, who was renting
a room inside the home based childcare center. Neither had
any priors. They're now facing murder and drug charges.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
Doctor William Maroney joining me, renowned toat psychologist, Doctor Moroney.
Isn't it true that if the EMTs had arrived earlier
and this little baby even had a pulse, I mean,
apparently they immediately suspected fentnol. I don't know why what
there was that they saw that the inspectors didn't see.
(38:05):
They knew immediately that there was a fentyl od If
they had gotten there in time, Doctor Moroney, and the
child was still breathing, there's a very strong possibility that
baby could have been saved with narcnlight.
Speaker 7 (38:20):
The other babies were unquestionably. When those people are trained
walk in, they look and they see, They sweep the mouth,
they check the pulse. They hear for breathing or no
breathing or shallow breathing, and sentinels at the top of
the list. If the mouth is clear and there's no choking,
(38:43):
if there's no food around, you see pin point pupils.
Pinpoint pupils in fentanyl exposure, possibly gurgling a limp body
and cold skin with blue lips and blue nails. You
see that. The first thing you say is narcotic overdose,
(39:06):
and you get that sentinel there right away. It comes
with the police, It comes with the fire, It comes
with the EMTs. Every person that would have been a
first responder would have had narcin every single one that
would have walked through that door. They just weren't called
soon enough.
Speaker 3 (39:23):
You're never gonna believe who the first responders were.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Take a listener, our cut thirty Fox five.
Speaker 19 (39:28):
Armed with a search warrant, NYPD detectives and DEA agents
made a startling discovery there.
Speaker 18 (39:34):
We just called it a kilogram of fentanyl in an
area that was used to give the children naps. It
was laid underneath a matt where the children had been
sleeping earlier.
Speaker 19 (39:43):
DEA agents were among the first responders to the Divino
Nino daycare Center, which was actually inside Mendez's apartment. Authority
say they also found three kilo presses in the place.
Speaker 3 (39:54):
Back to Dan Sarafin joining us from News twelve, Dan
every saying that Robert Crispin said about how this place
had likely been under surveillance has to be true because
they are.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
Among the first responders.
Speaker 3 (40:10):
Was the DEA, right, And I mean when my mom fell,
when my mom fail in the shower not long ago
and we called nine one one, the DEA.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
Didn't show up.
Speaker 8 (40:19):
And in that criminal complaint that was released yesterday kind
kind of tells that story also of surveillance and even
mentioning surveillance footage. As you mentioned before, that co conspirator
one who we know is Gray Mendez, his husband. After
that phone call that she made, one of the first
phone calls she made before nine to one one to him,
he shows up at that daycare before first responders do,
(40:41):
empty handed, and that complaint said surveillance footage shows him
walking in the front door empty handed and then walking
out the back door just two minutes later with those
two huge bags that I think you mentioned earlier that
they said carrying two shopping bags waited with contents. We
can probably imagine what's inside of those bags. So video
obviously the law enforcement operation into the investigation, talking to
(41:05):
people around that area. Yeah, this was something that they
seem to be right on top of from the minute
that this happened.
Speaker 3 (41:13):
Well, they're all going to hell, but I want them
to have a nice long life. Without parole, behind bars,
as a little pit stop to a burning eternity, we
wait as justice unfolds.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
Good las night,
Host
Nancy Grace
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