San Jose parents of Baby Winter convicted of murder in toddler's fentanyl overdose death

A jury convicted a San Jose couple of murder for the 2023 fentanyl overdose death of Baby Winter, their 19-month-old daughter, authorities said Friday.

Kelly Richardson, 29, and Derek Rayo, 31, were the first parents in Santa Clara County history to be charged with murdering their child by exposure to fentanyl. The Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office said the couple face 15 years to life in prison for the murder and felony child endangerment convictions.  

Winter Rayo died in 2023 after Rayo and Richardson left her in a room with illegal drugs. The child had approximately 25 times the lethal amount of fentanyl in her blood, and more undigested fentanyl in her stomach when she died, according to the DA's Office.

San Jose police said that officers responded at about 11 p.m. on Aug. 12, 2023 to Huddersfield Court in the city's Willow Glen neighborhood for a report of a baby who was not conscious and not breathing. When officers and medics arrived at the home, the child had been dead for several hours, according to the DA's Office.

Two people who allegedly supplied the couple with the drugs have also been charged with murder and their case remains pending. One of the two alleged drug dealers, Philip Ortega, is also charged in a second murder case involving another child, dubbed Baby Phoenix, who died from a fentanyl overdose three months before Baby Winter's death. The father of Baby Phoenix has also been charged with murder.

"Fentanyl kills," District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a prepared statment. "In this case, 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."

Court documents indicated that texts, social media posts, photos and videos showed both Rayo and Richardson both using drugs from the time of her birth through her death, the office said, while the narcotics and drug paraphernalia within reach of Baby Winter.  

Among the evidence introduced at the trial showing both Rayo and Richardson knew the danger for their child was that they put a clothespin on Winter's nose as they did drugs around her, the DA's Office said.

A sentencing date for the couple has not yet been set.