DA: 13 pounds of fentanyl found under San Jose baby’s crib, parents arrested
(KRON) — One of the largest seizures of fentanyl in Santa Clara County history happened inside a San Jose couple’s home, where 13 pounds of fentanyl was found stashed under their baby’s crib, prosecutors revealed on Thursday.
A 1-year-old boy lived inside a home riddled with drugs.
The baby’s father, 27-year-old Octavian Moreno, and mother, 23-year-old Krystal Delgado, stored a backpack under a crib where the baby slept, prosecutors said. Inside the backpack, investigators allegedly found 25,000 fentanyl pills.
Moreno and Delgado were arrested when the Santa Clara County Specialized Enforcement Team raided their home on May 7.
“Officers found the couple’s one-year-old baby playing in his playpen a few feet away from one of the bags of marijuana. Cocaine was found in a kitchen cabinet next to the baby’s formula,” the District Attorney’s Office wrote.
During the raid, SCCSET seized 1.5 pounds of cocaine, a loaded gun, 13 pounds of marijuana, digital scales for weighing narcotics, and thousands of dollars in cash, the DA’s Office said. Prosecutors said the 13 pounds of fentanyl was packaged as 25,000 pills in plastic baggies. The loaded gun was found in an unlocked drawer in the kitchen, investigators said.
The parents will make their first court appearance on Thursday afternoon for an arraignment at the Hall of Justice in San Jose. Prosecutors charged Moreno and Delgado with five felony counts, including child endangerment and possession of narcotics for sale. If convicted, the duo will face up to 18 years in prison.
District Attorney Jeff Rosen said his office is determined to hold Moreno and Delgado responsible for “criminal and dangerous behavior.”
“This is a county where fentanyl and the callous disregard for its lethality took the lives of two small children — Baby Phoenix and Baby Winter. I had hoped that their short lives had gained some meaning as a warning to all parents. I am relieved today that we have not added another name to that tragic list,” Rosen said.
Baby Phoenix, a 3-month-old girl, died on May 13, 2023 from a toxic combination of methamphetamine and fentanyl while she was at home with her father and her mother was in rehab. Both of Phoenix’s parents were drug addicts, according to testimony delivered at a preliminary hearing. Her mother, Emily De La Cerda, died from a fentanyl overdose at home just a few months after Phoenix died. Her father, 38-year-old David Castro, is facing felony child endangerment charges.
Baby Winter’s 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. The 18-month-old 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. Two alleged drug dealers who supplied the parents with fentanyl were also charged with murder.
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.”
Fentanyl is a highly addictive opioid that’s lethal in very small amounts. Just two milligrams is enough to kill an adult, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
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