Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Tot-Boy, 1, DEAD OF FENTANYL OVERDOSE AT LICENSED DAYCARE!

Episode Date: September 20, 2023

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.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. I remember the first 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 a half a mile from our house. And I was so distraught. I would sit in the parking lot and work in my car and occasionally would go up to the window and stare in at the ladies taking care of the children. Even when it would rain, I'd put a towel 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 a book.

I just couldn't do it all. I'm just thinking about the mother and the father of little Nikki, just one year old. He's dead. He was taken to daycare. There were just a few tots in there so he would get practically undivided attention. And now baby Nikki Domenici is dead. Wait for it. Because of an overdose of fentanyl. A baby goes to daycare so mom can work. She didn't have the luxury of sitting in the car in the minivan in the parking lot and looking in whenever 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 now her baby is dead from a fentanyl overdose. And what are we going to do about it? I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories.

Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. Take a listen to our friends at CBS. 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. That little piece, that little coin about the size, less than the size of a fingernail a tenth of a size of a fingernail can kill an adult so imagine what it could do to a child police alleged one-year-old Nicholas Dominici died after exposure to drugs at the

Vino Nino daycare three other children were also exposed according to the NYPD police were called to the daycare Friday afternoon the children according to the NYPD. Police were called to the daycare Friday afternoon. The children, according to detectives, were unresponsive. 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 licensed daycare that had just been qualified, searched, revalidated a few days before by the city. You were hearing the voice of the mayor, Eric Adams, just then. Our friends at CBS 2 and Fox 5 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, author of American Narcan, Naloxone and Heroin Fentanyl Associated Mortality. You can find him at recoverypathwayllc.com and this is a guy

who has devoted himself not only to his family and his faith, but to helping people get past a fentanyl addiction. He put his money where his mouth is and actually has created a mobile unit treating opioid addicts. Yes, that's what he's doing in his spare time. And he literally wrote the book American Narcan. So before I go to Dan Serafin from News 12, Dr. William Maroney, just explain to me what drug is so powerful that the amount of the tip of your fingernail, a fingernail clipping, can kill you, an adult, much less a baby. 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 have been exposed to different drugs over time. And right now, fentanyl is the drug that is sweeping across America since about 2015 or 16. 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. Okay, wait, what is fentanyl? I know you're saying an opioid, but you said a synthetic opioid. That means what? It's made in a lab and not out in a poppy field? What do you mean by synthetic opioid? Yes. The traditional heroin that we've seen for a 100 years is distilled and extracted from poppy plants.

It's a natural substance. It's morphine, it's codeine, it's heroin, but fentanyl is 100% synthesized, but it sits in the 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 off the drive to breathe. And that's where everybody dies. And that's where you need to administer Narcan. 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 Dr. William Maroney, Dan Serafin, anchor reporter News 12. Joining us, you can find him at news12.com. Dan, I just can't believe it because I 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 18 months old. When I had to finish that book, I had a deadline and I had to have help. 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 at a daycare licensed by the city, and it dies of a drug overdose?

As you mentioned, yeah, 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 into going to that daycare when this happened on Friday afternoon. And yeah, here we are now kind of trying to piece things together with what we know so far. We learned a lot more yesterday, though,

obviously. Guys, we're talking about a little one-year-old boy, baby Nicky, Nicholas Domenici. He's dead. He had not even been at this new daycare for even a week before this happened. Take a listen to this. 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 Nino daycare when they were exposed to fentanyl by a kilo stored right on their play mats. PIX 11 News spoke with the aunt of one of the children hurt. We also 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 could find a job. The children didn't wake up from nap time. First responders rushed to the building for cardiac arrests. Sources say Narcan 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. I guess they do. Now, did you hear that? Three children found unresponsive when police arrived. A fourth had already been picked up. The babies were playing, eating, sleeping when they were exposed to fentanyl

by a kilo stored on their play mat? Well, you were just hearing our friends at PIX11 and WABC7. Now, take a listen to this. In those critical moments, detectives say the owner of this daycare didn't call 911 right away. Instead, she calls other people first. And today, detectives are still trying to figure out where that husband is. Toddlers played, ate, and slept inside the Divino Nino Daycare Friday, while around them, a powerful substance under their mats

and hidden around the apartment-based daycare and equipment used to produce drugs. They dropped the babies off to a daycare center, hoping that their children would be protected by the caregivers. Three toddlers were found unresponsive after being exposed to what detectives say was fentanyl. And in the critical moments after the discovery, authorities say Gray Mendez, the owner of the daycare, called several others before 911 and caught on video shortly after. Mendez's husband and several others carrying bags of unknown items out of the apartment.

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Dan Serafin joining us, News 12. Did I hear that correctly? That the owner and operator, Gray, it's a female, Gray Mendez, 36 years old, did not call 911 immediately. She called several other people and neighbors observed people, men carrying things out of the daycare, things like what? A heroin press, a kilo of fentanyl. What happened? Yeah, the federal complaint that was made public yesterday kind of pointed to this timeline that starts at around 2.39 in the afternoon. That's when Mendez makes her first call. Hold on, hold on, hold on.

2.39 p.m., 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? You would imagine so, yes. And that's when Mendez makes the first call

is to another employee whose identity we don't know right now of that daycare, a very brief phone call. Then after that first phone call, she makes two more phone calls, neither of them to 911, both of them to the person named in the complaint as co-conspirator one, who we know is Mendez's husband. That first call was unanswered. The second one lasted just 10 seconds. Then finally, the third, the fourth phone call rather in this timeline is to 911. That's at 2.40 p.m. And then after that, there's several more calls to co-conspirator one. So it seems like Mendez during this time when obviously these children are in desperate need of help and attention medically. She's kind 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. Joining me is a renowned trial lawyer, Bernarda Villalona. She worked in homicide. Now she is a veteran criminal defense attorney, former prosecutor Bernarda Villalona. You can find her at VillalonaLaw.com. Bernarda, they're all going down, every one of them. This is textbook felony murder. No, this woman, this 36-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 and malignant heart, which is, for instance, I get into my minivan and I floor it at 100 MPH and drive through a street fair. I don't set out to kill everybody I mow down, but I do because I have an abandoned and malignant heart. No care for the human life I'm destroying. Then you've got a death 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 co-defendant testimony.

You don't need co-defendant testimony. We have enough based 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. Nancy, this is crazy. This case definitely shocks the conscious, but don't worry because the prosecutors have it covered. In terms of the state charges, they've already been charged with murder in the second degree, which is a depraved indifference. Of course, this is something that shocks the conscious. So that's why they went with the murder in the second degree. That's my language for abandoned and malignant heart, depraved indifference. But aside from that, Nancy, guess what? If you're talking about because she's claiming she wasn't aware that there were narcotics inside of the house, guess who has it covered? The feds have Well, hold on.

Bernarda, I'm not saying anything that you're saying is wrong. In fact, I think everything you just said is right. Dan Serafin, I want to address what Bernarda Villalona just said. She said that the owner and operator, 36-year-old Gray Mendez, claims, I didn't know there were drugs here. Really? Where were the drugs, Dan Serafin? Where was the fentanyl? Well, the complaint says that that fentanyl was actually in a closet when it was found on top of 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. On top of the play mat. Yeah, in the closet there, just sitting right on top of that play mat that I guess then during the day would be taken out and put on the mat. And from what I'm understanding, the children could get in there. Yeah. And this daycare, obviously limited space there in an apartment complex. So you think of kind of almost like a residential kind of space with a kitchen and stuff like that.

It's not necessarily a large, you know, daycare space where there's lots of open space. So I'm imagining, you know, just stuff stored wherever it could be stored. Obviously not in a good spot from what happened in a terrible spot. But you know what? To Dr. William Maroney, when fentanyl is placed on a surface and then a child touches that surface, what happens? 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 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. So like if you even touch it. Yeah. Police on scene. You don't have to ingest it. You don't have to smoke it. You don't have to

swallow it if you touch it. Correct. If you touch fentanyl. Police on scene have to double glove. Everybody on scene has to double glove. People have to wear masks. It is so reckless to touch fentanyl to products that maintain as equipment or furniture or toys. It's just reckless. We had 884 child and adolescent deaths to fentanyl in 2021. We need policy changes. Okay, 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. A kilo of fentanyl was discovered on top of play mats at this daycare center where one child dies and three others land in the hospital. A fentanyl overdose at 12 months old. Okay, Bernarda Villalona, joining me, veteran trial lawyer. Sources say, many sources say, the fentanyl was found on top of play mats where the children were.

Other sources say the fentanyl had been hidden in a 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 hidey hole. How in the world are they going to try to get out of this? Man, see, it doesn't matter where they found it in that house, in that daycare. It shouldn't have been there to begin with. It shouldn't have been there to begin with.

And let's not forget, so while she can claim, I didn't know anything about it, why did you delete over 21,000 text messages between you and your husband? Like, there's more to this. What were in the shopping bags that left that house that your husband left within two minutes of this incident happening? Like, why are these messages and everything 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 lives in jail. And hopefully they find the husband who's still out on the run now. Yeah, there's one guy to fit it on the run. She's exactly right. I want you to hear our cut 34 and 35 from ABC 7 and PIX 11. There's a cover-up.

One baby died. Three others were revived with the help of Narcan. Prosecutors say Mendez deleted 20,000 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. THEIR HUSBAND AND THEIR DAUGHTER. THE DAUGHTER WAS IN THE HOSPITAL AND THE DAUGHTER WAS IN THE HOSPITAL. THE DAUGHTER WAS IN THE HOSPITAL AND THE DAUGHTER WAS IN THE HOSPITAL. A MANHUNT CONTINUES FOR

MENDEZ'S HUSBAND AND ANYONE ELSE INVOLVED IN THIS DAYCARE DRUG DEN. PROSECUTORS ALLEGED THE DEFENDANTS TRIED TO COVER UP WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CHILDREN. INSTEAD OF CALLING 911, THE

OWNER OF THE DAYCARE APPARENTLY CALLED OTHER PEOPLE. THE FIRST WAS TO ANOTHER EMPLOYEE OF THE DAYCARE AT APPROXIMATELY 2-39 IN THE AF. The second two calls were to 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 weighted with contents. Right now, police are trying to find the husband. Yeah, she called them to come clean out the daycare of all the drugs and the drug paraphernalia before 911 got there.

And in that space of time, the baby died. The baby may have been able to have been saved if the EMTs had gotten there and given it Narcan, which they carry with them on the ambulance. That baby may have lived, but no, she called her husband and all of her drug cohorts to come clean out the place before cops could get there. And in that space of time, this baby died. Think about it.

Think about your child at age 12 months. Think about it. Think about your grandchild, your niece, your nephew. 12 months old, you go to daycare and die of an OD, an overdose? To Robert Crispin joining us, very well-known private investigator, former federal task force officer for the United 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 crispininvestigations.com. Robert, how have they managed to get back all of those texts? 20,000 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.

So there's a program out there called Cellbrite. And Cellbrite's a program that you can hook up a cell phone to. Wait a minute. Yes. Remember, Robert, we talked about this during Alex Murdoch's double murder trial? We did.

And the feds came in and they used that. I think it was the feds or it may have been the local SLED, South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. They used exactly what you just said. Actually, no. I remember him on the stand they brought a guy

that had been in the secret service right and he did all of these maneuvers on alex murdoch's and the deceased paul and maggie's phones and recovered all sorts of incriminating evidence and they used exactly what you just said could you you spell it? Shellbrite. I think it's C-E-L. I think it starts with C-E-L-L-E-B-R-I-T-E, something like that. I believe that. Okay, go ahead. So 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 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 Cellbrite, 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. 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 a machine. So explain how that would have been used. You're the former DEA. So listen, so a kilo press makes a kilo of cocaine, which is 2.2 pounds or a thousand grams. This is a major operation that was going on there.

They found 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 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 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 and it's getting distributed

distributed so that's i think where your federal nexus is coming in because this is a 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 this. And you're going to see as 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 be part of something that was already going on. You know what you're reminding me of? I remember my first triple homicide prosecution.

I've talked about it with you before, Jackie, because I remember the crime scene photos. There was literally blood running down the gutter. Three young boys, teens, were gunned down over drug 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. They didn't care about the three young men. They wanted the courier. They wanted the supplier. And guess what? About two years later, they got them. And it was all tied into your stomping grounds, Crispin, Miami and beyond. Sure.

They didn't give a flying fig about my little triple homicide case. And that's all I cared about. And I went to that federal courthouse, and I got a hold of the guy that was allegedly on the case. And that's all I cared about. And I went to that federal courthouse and 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. So what you're telling me is that because of this baby's death, they're going to get these perps. Gray, Mendez, her husband, whenever they can find him.

The other guys that were cleaning the place out, getting rid of all the drugs. They're going to get them. 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, is going 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. Right? Is that what you're saying? 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 wiretap or a Title III 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. It's my belief. Man, hey, you're having a sweet dream because I've never heard of it being that easy, which leads me to the question, if they did know that, how in the H-E-L-L did they let children go into a daycare with fentanyl and drug presses around? Dr. Michelle Joy is joining us, forensic and clinical academic psychiatrist, author of, wait for it, An Illustrated History of the Insanity Defense. Now see, that's a good book. An Illustrated History of the Insanity Defense. I could go, I could read that all night long.

And hint, hint for Christmas, An Illustrated History of the Ins the insanity defense. Wow. Dr. 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? 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 mats that are covered in fentanyl? I'm so glad that you asked me 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, oh, there was a little bit of fentanyl stored there. Someone was trying to make money. 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 she needed to survive. They were literally used to

cover up the drugs. This wasn't incidental. This wasn't coincidental. This wasn't even simultaneous. This was literally using babies to protect a cash flow. Who would do that? What kind of mind is that? A sociopath, a psychopath, the antisocial person, no matter how we think about it, it is something, 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 acknowledgement of the fact that this is something other than a prop to be used for furthering your own selfish need. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. I'm just thinking about something. Anastasia, I'm coming right to you. We've got an incredible child care professional with us.

I'm just thinking about something, Dr. Michelle. Dr. 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 and I went into her apartment. It was in a housing project and there were about 11 or 12 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 my, John David and Lucy were like all over everything.

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 in the lady's kitchen. She couldn't have been over 21. I went in the lady's kitchen and sat down at the kitchen table to talk to her. First of all,

I had to sneak in because nobody wants to be seen with the prosecutor. I had to sneak in the back way. I got in, I got into the kitchen and I was sitting there waiting for her, and I looked. I just felt movement. I looked up. There had to be 80 or 90 roaches, the little bitty nasty ones, going up and down the wall right beside me. And I'm like, oh, and what could I do? I couldn't scream, lady, you got roaches all over. So I sat 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 went, oh, okay. And left. I'm like, a daycare, my rear end, which I guess Dr. Joyce, she didn't think there was a problem 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 or it's hell to pay. H E double L. He said 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, gross, grass, grass. And wait, what are people thinking? What kind of mind is that? You know, it's, it's like I said, it's not even just this regard in a sense. And I don't mean legally, right?

These are just people that truly are not, not, not having empathy, not understanding another person, let alone, again, I keep emphasizing baby as something worthy of value, something with a future. I guess sees them as objects, not as little babies. Guys, with me right now, Anastasia Germain, president of Child Care Professional Services, LLC, founder and former operator of a licensed child care center and you can find her at child care ps.com repeat child care ps.com anastasia thank you so much for being with us how in the hay did this place just get in this right dan seraphim they just got re-licensed the week before? Inspected, yeah, by the city.

The one baby dies and three others have ODs? This case is so disheartening. One thing that stands out, during the application process, the daycare owner would, Ms. 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 the time of licensing or thereafter that a room was being rented? Was this individual renting the room, Mr. Brito, was he subjected to the same background and reference checks that the owner and child care staff were subjected to? Was he passing through rooms used for the daycare

center? Bidders at child care centers have to sign in and out. They have to put the date and time. Okay, hold on, hold on. With me is Anastasia Germain. Yeah, the last thing I want with my children in a daycare is to have some male who, 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 tromping through in and out with my babies there. No. Exactly. And were the parents even aware that there was a room being rented? Did Mr. 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, Dr. Ashwin Vasanath, said that at the time of the incident, inspectors were not trained in what to look for in terms of fentanyl,

but that maybe they should be. I don't think that's a maybe. I think that's a definite. That is awful. We sent out inspectors, but they didn't know what to do. Really? Exactly. If they saw the press, if they saw the fentanyl, would they know what they're looking at? Guys, I'm listening to Anastasia Germain, president of Child Care Professional Services, LLC, at ChildCarePS.com. I want you to take a listen to our cut for our friends at CBS2. 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. It was laid underneath a mat where the children had been sleeping earlier.

Over the weekend, police arrested the daycare owner, Gray Mendez, and her husband's cousin, Carlisto Acevedo Brito, who was renting a room inside the home-based child care center. Neither had any priors. They're now facing murder and drug charges. Dr. William Maroney, joining me, renowned toxicologist. Dr. Maroney, 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 fentanyl. I don't know why. What there was that they saw that the inspectors didn't see, they knew immediately that there was a fentanyl OD.

If they had gotten there in time, Dr. Maroney, and the child was still breathing, there's a very strong possibility that baby could have been saved with Narcan like the other babies were. Unquestionably, when those people are trained to 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 fentanyl's at the top of the list. If the mouth is clear and there's no choking, if there's no food around, you see pinpoint 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. And you get that fentanyl 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 Narcan. Every single one that would have walked through that door. They just weren't called soon enough. You're never going to believe who the first responders were. Take a listen to our Cut 30 Fox 5. Armed with a search warrant, NYPD detectives and DEA agents made a startling discovery. There we discovered a kilogram of fentanyl in an area that was used to give the children naps.

It was laid underneath a mat where the children had been sleeping earlier. DEA agents were among the first responders to the Divino Nino Daycare Center, which was actually inside Mendez's apartment. Authorities say they also found three kilo presses in the place. Back to Dan Serafin joining us from News 12. Dan, everything that Robert Crispin said about how this place had likely been under surveillance has to be true. Because there, among the first responders, was the DEA. Right. I mean, when my mom fell, when my mom fell in the shower not long ago, and we called 911, the DEA didn't show up. And that criminal complaint that was released yesterday 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's husband. After that phone call that she made, one of the first phone calls she made before 911 to him, he shows up at that daycare before first responders do, empty-handed, and that complaint says 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 weighted with contents. We can probably imagine what's inside of those bags. So, I mean, video, obviously the law enforcement operation into the investigation, talking to people around that area. Yeah, this was something that they seem to be right on top of from the minute that this happened.

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. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.