Husband of N.Y.C. Daycare Owner Pleads Guilty After 1-Year-Old Boy Dies of Fentanyl Poisoning

Felix Herrera Garcia, the husband of an owner of a New York City daycare where a toddler died due to fentanyl poisoning, has pleaded guilty.  

In a statement obtained by PEOPLE on June 10, Bronx County District Attorney Darcel D. Clark confirmed that Herrera Garcia, 35, pleaded guilty to three federal counts that lead to “the fatal fentanyl ingestion of 22-month-old Nicholas Dominici and the injury to three other babies at the Divino Niño Day Care Center in the Bronx on September 15, 2023.”

“[He] has now been held accountable in the tragic loss of little Nicholas, the serious injury of Abel, and the harm to Kiara and Jaziel,” Clark concluded, naming the victims, who were all younger than 3 years old. 

All three charges carry a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison, Clark and U.S. Attorney Damian Williams noted on Monday. 

The charges included one count of conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death and serious bodily injury, one count of possession with intent to distribute narcotics resulting in death, and one count of possession with intent to distribute narcotics resulting in serious bodily injury.  

“[The injuries and death] happened because, as they admitted in court, Felix Herrera Garcia and Renny Antonio Parra Paredes operated an illegal fentanyl operation out of the center, where they processed the deadly drugs for sale,” Williams said in a new statement.  

“We said at the time that this case shocks the conscience of the City, and now Herrera Garcia and Parra Paredes have been brought to justice for this heinous crime,” Williams added.

Paredes, 38, pleaded guilty on May 23 to one count of conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death and serious bodily injury.

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Sentencing of the defendants will be determined later by a judge.

Cases are pending against Herrera Garcia’s wife Grei Mendez, and Carlisto Acevedo Brito in connection with their roles in the poisonings.

Otoniel Feliz and Zoila Dominici — the parents of the infant who died — spoke out shortly after his death.  

“The hardest thing is for me to come home and open that door and not see Nicholas saying, 'Dad, Dad,’ ” Feliz told CBS New York in September. “It is too hard.”

“Look at what happened,” Dominici added. “If I had known, I wouldn't have taken him.”