SAN JOSE, Calif. (TCN) — The parents of a 19-month-old girl who died of fentanyl poisoning in 2023 have been convicted of murder.
On Aug. 12, 2023, Winter Rayo was left in a room that contained fentanyl and methamphetamine, KRON reports. Her parents, 29-year-old Derek Rayo and 31-year-old Kelly Richardson, reportedly waited 11 hours to call 911 for help. They told the dispatcher they did not know what had happened. According to the district attorney’s office, Winter Rayo had been dead for several hours by the time help arrived, CBS News reports.
An autopsy found the child had 25 times the lethal amount of fentanyl in her bloodstream. She had also eaten fentanyl and some of the undigested drug was found in her stomach, according to KRON.
CBS reports that Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen said, “The powerful opioid was left around this toddler like a loaded gun. The criminal recklessness of these two defendants killed their own child. I thank the jury for giving that child’s tragically short life some meaning.”
At trial, prosecutors said Rayo and Richardson knew about the risks involved with fentanyl; Rayo was employed as a drug and alcohol counselor and reportedly had friends who had died from overdoses. When the couple smoked, including with the drug dealer Philip Ortega, who lived with them for a time, they would reportedly pin Winter Rayo’s nose shut with a clothespin.
Photographs from inside the home showed drugs and drug paraphernalia were kept within reach of the toddler.
Ortega was charged in June 2025 with murder in the deaths of Winter Rayo and another child, known as Baby Phoenix, KRON reports. The outlet reports that a key witness called him the “baby killer.”
On May 8, Rayo and Richardson were convicted of second-degree murder. When sentenced, they will each face a maximum sentence of 15 years to life in prison, per KRON. A sentencing date has not yet been set.
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