4 charged in San Jose Baby Winter murder case
(KRON) — Four people have now been charged in murdering an 18-month-old girl, Baby Winter, in San Jose, prosecutors announced Wednesday. The baby had 15 times the lethal amount of fentanyl in her blood when she died from an overdose, investigators said.
Baby Winter’s parents are the first in Santa Clara County’s history to be charged with murdering their own child with drugs. Now, two alleged drug dealers who supplied the parents with fentanyl are also facing murder charges, the District Attorney’s Office said.
District Attorney Jeff Rosen said, “The fatal irresponsibility of the people around Baby Winter is shocking – and it is criminal. We will hold accountable anyone whose recklessness ended the life of that poor little girl.”
The parents, Derek Vaughn Rayo, 27, and Kelly Gene Richardson, 28, waited more than 12 hours before they called 911 to report that their daughter was dead on August 12, 2023, according to the DA’s Office. Baby Winter’s lifeless body was found inside the couple’s home at 1550 Huddersfield Court, investigators said.
The District Attorney’s Office wrote, “Phillip Ortega, 31, of Gilroy, and Paige Vitale, 32, of San Jose, provided Winter’s parents with a steady supply of opioids and shared the drugs, while the baby girl wandered inside the drug-littered San Jose residence. Evidence shows that the babysitting dealers left opioids and dirty drug paraphernalia in the open around the house where the baby could find them.”
Ortega and Vitale consistently supplied Rayo and Richardson with fentanyl and methamphetamine, according to the DA’s Office. Investigators said they found photographs and videos showing all four defendants using drugs in the same room as Baby Winter.
Prosecutors explained that under California law, people can be charged with murder if they commit a “dangerous and deliberate act with conscious disregard for human life.”
Two accused drug dealers will be arraigned Wednesday in the Santa Clara County Hall of Justice on murder charges. A coroner detected a fentanyl blood concentration of 74 ng/mL in Winter’s body. Blood concentrations as low as 5 ng/mL can cause death.
San Jose Police Department Det. Christina Jize said the parents used fentanyl on the same day their baby died. “Blood samples taken from both Derek Rayo and Kelly Richardson from the day of the victim’s death showed both were positive for fentanyl,” Jize wrote.
The District Attorney’s Office is asking anyone who has any information about this case to contact Investigator Sheena Woodland at 408-792-2334 or swoodland@dao.sccgov.org.
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