San Jose Parents Waited 10 Hours To Report Their Baby’s Fentanyl Overdose Death

[Sugar Cookie]

The scourge of fentanyl has claimed the life of another Bay Area toddler, an 18-month-old San Jose girl named Winter, born on Christmas eve.

This time, the parents are being charged with murder. The San Jose couple didn’t call police for at least 10 hours after they woke up in the early afternoon of Aug. 12 and found their daughter not breathing, court documents say. They told police they were “in denial” and “wanted to grieve together” before calling 911.

By the time San Jose Police arrived, rigor mortis had set in, police say. Winter Rayo’s lips were blue. A toxicology report later determined that the concentration of fentanyl in her blood was 24 times the lethal dose.

Santa Clara County District Attorney filed charges Monday against the parents, 26-year-old Kelly Gene Richardson and 25-year-old Derek Vaughn Rayo, who court documents say were caught in photos and videos “recklessly smoking narcotics” while holding the baby and in her presence. Rayo has a lengthy criminal history and told police years earlier that he had been using methamphetamine since he was 12. Rayo is scheduled for arraignment at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at San Jose’s Hall of Justice. Richardson has not yet been apprehended.

It is the first time that the Santa Clara County District Attorney has charged parents for the murder of their child in a fentanyl-related death.

In San Jose, the felony complaint says that the toddler was “particularly vulnerable” and the death involved a “high degree of cruelty, viciousness, or callousness.”

Just after 11 p.m. Aug. 12, Rayo, the father, called San Jose police and said his daughter was unconscious and he “did not know what happened,” but that he and his girlfriend were alone at their home near Southwest Expressway in central San Jose. Emergency crews were the first to arrive and found the baby on the master bed “covered with a rug,” court documents say.

“It appeared the victim had been deceased for at least 12 hours,” the records say.

The couple told police they had gone to bed at 2 a.m. with their toddler, but when they woke up at 1 p.m., Richardson, the mother, said that Rayo “was on top of the victim’s legs.” Winter was limp and not breathing and they believed she was dead. They told police that they waited all day and into the night to call 911 because they wanted time to grieve “before police arrived to separate them.”

Blood samples taken from both parents that night found they were both positive for fentanyl, amphetamine and methamphetamine, according to a statement of facts from San Jose police.

At the townhouse where they lived with another person who was a “purported drug dealer,” the documents say, police found fentanyl in white chunky powder on the nightstand, in a scraping tool on the master bedroom desk and on another scraping tool found on the rug underneath the baby.

During the investigation, police later found video and photographic evidence showing the parents smoked narcotics while holding the baby or being near her, court documents say. They also discovered text messages showing the couple knew how dangerous the drugs were around the toddler. The messages show they asked the roommate to deliver and leave drugs in “open and unsecured locations” in the house, records show, but the couple also texted each other “their concern about leaving dangerous narcotics within reach of” their baby.

MSN

 

[Sugar Cookie]

Winter Rose

 

[cubby]

This sweet baby had less of a chance than a snowball in hell. Why was she not taken at birth?

 

[Sugar Cookie]

Winter

 

[Sugar Cookie]

A mother on the run from police after her toddler died of a fentanyl overdose has been located and taken into custody, the San Jose Police Department confirmed to KTVU.

Kelly Richardson, 28, of San Jose was booked into the Santa Clara County Jail on Wednesday at 6:45 p.m. on no bail status, police said. According to booking records, she is due in court on Tuesday at noon.

Sometime between the time of Baby Winter's death and the release of the coroner's report, Richardson went missing.

San Jose mother accused in child's fentanyl death located by police

A mother on the run from police after her toddler died of a fentanyl overdose has been located and taken into custody, the San Jose Police Department confirmed to KTVU.

www.ktvu.com

 

[thuumpr]

View attachment 103025

San Jose mother accused in child's fentanyl death located by police

A mother on the run from police after her toddler died of a fentanyl overdose has been located and taken into custody, the San Jose Police Department confirmed to KTVU.

www.ktvu.com

Someone thought she's too pretty for prison.

 

[Sugar Cookie]

Drugs - not so pretty now

 

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View attachment 103057
Drugs - not so pretty now

Sad... still not getting the attraction to drugs thing.

 

[Sugar Cookie]

wo alleged drug dealers have been charged with murder months after a toddler's fentanyl overdose death in San Jose also led to murder charges against her parents.

The Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office said in a press statement Wednesday that 31-year-old Phillip Ortega and 32-year-old Paige Vitale babysat for 18-month-old Winter Doe while also providing her parents with a steady supply of opioids.

Evidence shows Ortega and Vitale consistently supplied Rayo and Richardson with fentanyl and methamphetamine, and investigators found photos and videos showing all four using drugs in the same room as the child, the office said. The child was able to wander throughout the home where the alleged dealers left drugs and dirty drug paraphernalia in the open where the toddler could find them.

"The fatal irresponsibility of the people around Baby Winter is shocking - and it is criminal," said District Attorney Jeff Rosen in a prepared statement. "We will hold accountable anyone whose recklessness ended the life of that poor little girl."

After a November coroner's report that showed the child had 15 times the lethal amount of fentanyl in her blood, Rayo and Richardson became the first parents in the county to be charged with murdering their own child with drugs.

The DA's Office said under the law, people can be charged with murder if they commit a dangerous and deliberate act with conscious disregard for human life.

Alleged drug dealers charged with murder in fentanyl death of San Jose toddler that also led to charges against parents

Two alleged drug dealers have been charged with murder months after a toddler's fentanyl overdose death in San Jose also led to murder charges against her parents.

www.cbsnews.com

 

[Sugar Cookie]

An accused drug dealer faces two murder charges in connection with the deaths of two babies in the South Bay.

The children, one called Baby Phoenix and the other Baby Winter, died from fentanyl overdoses just a few months apart. The separate cases are now connected because the Santa Clara County district attorney says the same drug dealer, Phillip Ortega, provided drugs to the parents.

Ortega appeared in a Santa Clara County courtroom Friday. Before Friday’s hearing, Ortega had already been charged with murder in the death of Baby Winter, who died in August 2023.

Baby Winter’s parents, Derek Rayo and Kelly Richardson, became the first in the county’s history to be charged with killing their own child with drugs.

Baby Phoenix died several months before from a similar drug overdose. At that time, the father, David Castro, was only charged with felony child endangerment. Castro ended up in court Friday along with Ortega. Ortega was charged in the murder of Baby Phoenix for providing drugs to Castro. Castro had a murder charge added to felony child endangerment.

District Attorney Jeff Rosen said new evidence of interactions between Castro and Ortega led to the new charges for both men.

Defense attorneys requested a gag order, but it was denied.

MSN