Tragic Events at Divino Niño Day Care
On a fateful September afternoon last year, Felix Herrera Garcia received a chilling call from his wife, who had just discovered that three children at the Divino Niño day care center were unresponsive. In a panic, he rushed to the basement facility located in the Bronx, where prosecutors allege he had been secretly storing and packaging opioids. It was there that he would have encountered a heart-wrenching scene: a 22-month-old boy lying lifeless on a kindergarten mat, a victim of fentanyl poisoning.
Before emergency responders could arrive, Mr. Herrera Garcia fled the scene, embarking on a two-week escape to Mexico. His journey ended with his arrest in California, but by that time, the 22-month-old, identified as Nicholas Dominici, had already succumbed to the poison before Mr. Herrera Garcia could leave the Bronx.
Legal Consequences and Community Outrage
On Wednesday, following his guilty plea in June for possessing narcotics with the intent to distribute, as well as conspiring to distribute narcotics that resulted in serious injury and death, Mr. Herrera Garcia was sentenced to 45 years in federal prison by the Federal District Court in Manhattan.
The shocking events that unfolded at Divino Niño, where four otherwise healthy toddlers were gravely ill within hours of being dropped off by their parents, sent waves of horror throughout New York City and beyond.
Details from Court Documents
Newly released court documents offer a troubling glimpse into the lethal circumstances surrounding this tragedy. They contain detailed accounts of how Divino Niño operated not merely as a day care but also as a covert drug stash house. Disturbingly, kitchen utensils that were typically used to prepare children’s meals were repurposed as tools for packaging drugs. This alarming duality was cited by prosecutors as a probable cause for the tragic poisonings.