A 10-year-old boy died after being poisoned with fentanyl in his family home.
Nathaniel Castro Mendoza stopped breathing after eating the meal that was prepared for him by his uncle’s then-girlfriend Christina Alvarez.
Paramedics rushed to the southern California house and tried to save him, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
His mom Marcy Castro said it was not until weeks later she learned her little boy’s shocking death was in fact caused by unknown exposure to fentanyl and xylazine.
Alvarez, 32, was arrested in March after authorities determined she allegedly ‘possessed and stored fentanyl in a manner that led to the victim’s death’, according to police reports.
She was charged with felony child endangerment and an enhancement of willful harm resulting in death. Alvarez pleaded not guilty and is being held on a $100,000 bail.
Now, the boy’s mother is pleading for justice, telling Daily Mail the charges ‘are not enough’.
‘Nathaniel didn’t go looking for drugs, he wasn’t trying to get high. He was just an innocent boy in his home. He should have been safe,’ the mom said.
Court records show Alvarez has requested a mental disorder diversion program, which offers criminal offenders battling mental health conditions an alternative to incarceration.
Nathaniel died on December 12 at his family home in Rancho Cucamonga, about 37 miles east of Los Angeles.
Weeks later Marcy received a call from the coroner notifying her that his death was caused by fentanyl exposure.
She said the family home, where Alvarez was living at the time of Nathaniel’s death, was believed to be a ‘drug-free’ environment.
‘We still don’t know how Nathaniel came in contact with the drug, if he ingested it or if [Alvarez] touched something,’ Marcy told the Daily Mail.
‘Christina gave him shrimp that night for dinner so we think he might have ingested it.’
Marcy claims the DA told her it is not likely that Nathaniel was exposed to fentanyl and xylazine from the shrimp because the drugs were not digested.
Alvarez was arrested on March 14 following a criminal investigation by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.
She appeared in court on Friday for a mental disorder diversion hearing which, according to booking records, was delayed until July 18.
Marcy, who attended the hearing, said the family’s understanding is that ‘the mental health evaluation for Christina Alvarez was not completed’.
The grieving mother is outraged by the delay, which she says ‘only adds to our heartache as a family still grieving the loss of our son’.
‘[Nathaniel] was just 10 years old – smart, funny, loving, and full of life,’ she said.
‘Our son paid the ultimate price for someone else’s recklessness.’
Marcy added that she will be ‘showing up to every hearing because Nathaniel’s voice was stolen, and we are now his voice’.
‘We continue to fight for justice and accountability.’
Marcy also launched the Nathaniel’s Light campaign which seeks to create legislation that will make it a federal crime to harm or kill a minor through fentanyl possession.
She is seeking legislative change that will ‘hold people like Christina accountable’ by ‘closing the loopholes in the laws’ surrounding lethal drugs.
There is ‘no clear federal charge for causing a child’s death by fentanyl exposure’, Marcy explained, noting that prosecutors must ‘rely on light charges like child endangerment or involuntary manslaughter, even when a child dies’.
‘Child endangerment charges are not enough. Mental disorder diversion should not be an excuse,’ Marcy said of Alvarez’s case.
‘There is no justice for Nathaniel. He should have been safe in his home.’
The Nathaniel’s Light campaign also looks to ban the use of mental health diversion programs in cases where a child dies from exposure to lethal drugs and add sentencing enhancements for offenders.