Day care operator’s husband sentenced to 45 years in child’s fentanyl death
(NEW YORK) — The husband of the owner of a New York City day care where a 1-year-old child died of fentanyl poisoning was sentenced Wednesday to 45 years in prison.
Felix Herrera Garcia, 35, pleaded guilty in June to federal drug charges for trafficking fentanyl out of the day care center.
In September 2023, a 1-year-old boy attending the day care, Nicholas Dominici, died, and three other children, ranging in age from 8 months to 2 years, were hospitalized and treated with Narcan, police said.
In his sentencing, federal prosecutors said Herrera Garcia was seen fleeing the Bronx day care through a back alley, carrying two heavy shopping bags while children were suffering from the effects of fentanyl.
Herrera Garcia and others stashed more than 11 kilograms of fentanyl and heroin in secret compartments, or traps, located underneath the floor tiles in the playroom where the children played, ate and slept on a daily basis, prosecutors said.
“Felix Herrera Garcia operated a deadly fentanyl trafficking enterprise out of a day care, recklessly putting babies at risk of fentanyl exposure on a daily basis,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement Wednesday.
“This case demonstrates the deadly reach and scope of the fentanyl epidemic, and the tragic collateral damage it inflicts on American lives,” Williams added.
Herrera Garcia fled to Mexico after the death and was arrested after a weeklong manhunt. His wife, Grei Mendez, who worked at the day care has also been charged in relation to the drug trafficking scheme.
Mendez pulled her and Herrera Garcia’s 2-year-old son from attending the day care prior to the incident after she worried he was exhibiting signs of fentanyl exposure, law enforcement sources familiar with the case previously told ABC News.
Mendez never reported the suspected exposure to police and did not allow the boy to return to the facility, according to the sources. However, she kept the day care open for other children.
In September, a federal criminal complaint showed Mendez allegedly deleted more than 20,000 messages between her and her husband sent from March 2021 to the day the 1-year-old boy died from fentanyl exposure at her facility, on Sept. 15, 2023.
Before calling 911 about the unresponsive children, Mendez allegedly made three other phone calls: one to a day care employee and two to her husband, according to the federal court documents.
In addition to the 45-year prison term, Herrera Garcia was sentenced to five years of supervised release, prosecutors said.
(WASHINGTON) — A “diverse set of actors” in the U.S. could use Monday’s one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel as an opportunity to “engage in violence or threaten public safety,” Department of Homeland Security and FBI officials warned on Wednesday, sources said, adding that the actors could specifically target Jewish, Muslim or Arab communities.
Law enforcement is particularly concerned about hoax threats targeting symbolic institutions or public gatherings, according to sources, although there is currently no credible threat that anything is going to happen.
Those places are “pretty attractive targets” if an extremist wanted to carry out an attack, officials said.
Actors with a range of motivations, including those who are antisemitic or Islamophobic, could be motivated to strike, especially with Al Queda and ISIS encouraging lone offenders to carry out attacks against the West, according to sources.
Foreign terrorist organizations online could escalate the threat of violence in the U.S., particularly targeting Jewish community institutions and U.S. officials who support Israel, sources said.
At the same time, it is unlikely that Hezbollah or Iran or its proxies would attack inside the U.S. homeland, sources said.
After the events of Oct. 7, hate crimes in the U.S. skyrocketed. Hate crimes continue to be the biggest threat to members of the Arab, Jewish and Muslim communities, officials warned.
Senior DHS and FBI officials are concerned that graphic images from the continuing conflict in the Middle East could contribute to radicalization, violence and even retaliatory attacks.
Sources also said that the FBI and DHS are “aware” that violence can occur at local protests.
Officials went into more detail about the threat that election officials face from domestic violent extremists.
White supremacists did make threats in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack, according to sources, and officials remain concerned they could be inspired to carry out an attack.
The FBI believes that the threat from domestic violent extremists could persist through the presidential inauguration in January.
Violent extremists could seek to use a range of violence or disruptive tactics against individuals and entities associated with the presidential election, including physical attacks, threats of violence, swatting and doxing, mailing or otherwise delivering suspicious items, arson and other means of property destruction, FBI officials said on a call with law enforcement partners that was described to ABC News.
Senior Official Performing the Duties of Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Kristie Canegallo said on the call that the threat environment is “volatile.”
Individuals who could be targeted include candidates for public office, elected officials, political party representatives, election workers, judicial personnel, participating in court cases related to the election media personnel and perceived ideological opponents, the FBI assesses, according to sources.
Domestic violent extremists could also target voting locations, ballot drop boxes, voter registration locations, political rallies, campaign events and political party offices, and could target the homes of public officials.
The concern from security officials is that domestic violent extremists continue to “promote and exploit” narratives about the election and that that could motivate some extremists to act upon grievances.
“Since the last presidential election, some of the most common social and political issues extremists have violently reacted to include immigration, LGBTQIA+ rights and abortion access,” an FBI official said, according to sources.
Some indicators, sources said, are suspicious behavior around the sites themselves, specific threats of violence, packages with excessive tape or postage stamps, photographing election related infrastructure and unfamiliar people around a certain site.
The warning comes as DHS on Wednesday issued its Homeland Security Threat Assessment that outlined threats facing the United States.
(OCALA, FL) — A jury began deliberating Friday in the case of Susan Lorincz – the Florida woman who is charged with first-degree felony manslaughter in the fatal shooting of her neighbor, Ajike “AJ” Owens, through a closed door on June 2, 2023, in Ocala, Florida.
The six-person panel was seated on Monday and began deliberating on Friday shortly after 12:00 p.m. ET after prosecutors and the defense presented their closing arguments in a case that gained national attention.
Lorincz shot Owens, a Black mother of four, through a closed door in the presence of her now 10-year-old son after she went to speak with Lorincz about a dispute over Owens’ children playing near her home, according to a June 6, 2023, statement from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO).
Lorincz, who is white, was arrested on June 6, 2023, and charged with first-degree felony manslaughter for fatally shooting Owens on June 2, 2023, in Ocala, Florida. She pleaded not guilty on July 10, 2023, and was held on a $150,000 bond. If convicted, Lorincz faces up to 30 years in prison, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.
Anthony Thomas, attorney for the family of Owens, told ABC News in a statement after the jury was sworn in on Monday that the family is “disappointed in the all-white jury that was selected to determine the outcome” of this case.
“We would have wanted the jury to be more diverse. But we believe in equal justice, so we are going to see what happens,” added family attorney Ben Crump in a statement to ABC News.
“Historically, jurors in America have not reflected the diversity of America,” Crump continued. “We want to believe in our heart that any juror looking at this situation will administer justice. We must make sure that AJ Owens’ death is not in vain. We keep the faith that the American justice system works for people like AJ Owens, as well.”
How the trial unfolded
A host of neighbors, including two children, sheriff’s deputies, a 911 dispatcher and operator, crime scene investigators and forensic experts were among those who testified during the trial.
Prosecutors argued that Lorincz should be found guilty because she fatally shot an “unarmed” Owens through a “locked” door.
“Ms. Owens was banging on the door telling the defendant to come out,” state attorney Rich Buxman said in his closing argument. “Belief that there was an immediate or imminent danger, such that deadly force was necessary at that time, was simply unreasonable because there was no imminent danger. And that word imminent is very important. It’s included in the law for a reason… If Miss Owens would somehow have managed to bust through this locked, dead bolted metal door, entered her house and started coming at her, the defendant may have had a right to shoot because that danger would have then been imminent.”
The defense argued that Lorincz should be found not guilty because she was acting in self-defense because she feared for her life.
“The law says you should only convict someone if you’re convinced they’re guilty beyond a reasonable doubt…. If you’re back there and you’re deliberating and you’re thinking, ‘Man, she had some medical issues. She did live alone. She had these prior run-ins with Ajike, I could see how she could be scared of her.'” Amanda Sizemore, Lorincz’s attorney, said in her closing argument. “And if you have reasonable doubt, you should find Ms. Lorincz not guilty because that is what the law says. And each and every one of you took an oath to follow the law.”
A focus of the state’s argument was on the first 911 call that Lorincz made to report “trespassing” on June 2, 2023 – minutes before she ended up shooting Owens.
“No matter the outcome, I am committed to honoring my daughter Ajike’s memory by continuing to seek justice, not only for her but for every family who has faced a similar loss,” Pamela Dias, Owens’ mother, told ABC News through a statement sent by her attorneys. “This trial has been an incredibly difficult journey, but I believe in the power of truth and justice.”
Susan Lorincz’s attorney did not respond to ABC News’ request for a statement.
According to witnesses, including the sheriff’s deputies who responded to the shooting, law enforcement was already on their way to Lorincz’s home when the shooting occurred because she had called 911 to report three children – one Latino and two Black – were “trespassing” on her property.
During the trial the locked door became a focus of the state’s argument and the subject of cross examination during the testimony of various witnesses.
The defense claimed that Owens told Lorincz that she was going to “kill” her and was trying to “break” in Lorincz’s front door that they argued was “damaged.”
The state zeroed in on this claim during the testimony on Tuesday of Lorincz’s former landlord Charles Gabbard.
Gabbard testified that, prior to the shooting, he had repaired a jam on Lorincz’s front door. He said that her door was “structurally sound” after he repaired it, despite some cosmetic damage. He said that the door was sturdy and had a chain, a deadbolt and a lock.
During cross-examination, Gabbard said that Lorincz did not tell him how the door was damaged but that “it was clear that someone slammed” the door. He said that after repairing it, he was planning to replace Lorincz’s door at some point. Asked by Lorincz’s attorney if the crack in the door was “substantial,” Gabbard said, “Yes.”
“Susan Lorincz told detectives, ‘I really thought she was going to break my door down,'” Sizemore said. “‘I really thought that I saw the door moving.’ And I really believe that. I honest to God believe that is what she said. She reasonably believed that. We heard Susan tell the detectives, ‘I heard Ms. Owens say, ‘I’m going to [expletive] kill you.’ … I heard the door crack, and when I heard that door crack, I fired.'”
(NEW YORK) — Twenty-three years after Sept. 11, 2001, illnesses linked to the World Trade Center terrorist attack have now killed more members of the New York City Fire Department than were killed on 9/11 itself.
On the day the Twin Towers fell, 343 members of the FDNY were killed, according to officials.
In the 23 years since, more than 360 FDNY members have died of World Trade Center-related illnesses, the department said. Twenty-eight of those FDNY deaths were over the last year, according to the FDNY Uniformed Firefighters Association.
“Those insurmountable losses did not end at the World Trade Center site,” New York City Fire Commissioner Robert Tucker said. “Instead, we have seen our members become sick because of time they spent working in the rescue and recovery.”
Of the 2,753 people killed at the World Trade Center, about 40% — 1,103 people — remain formally unidentified. There has not been a new identification of remains since January.
The National September 11 Memorial & Museum’s annual commemoration ceremony will take place on Wednesday, beginning at 8:30 a.m. ET.