SAN JOSE — She grew up in a lovely home in the Almaden Valley. She was a cheerleader at West Valley College and a fan of the San Jose Sharks. She rescued kittens for a nonprofit agency.
But when police arrested Kelly Richardson a day before Thanksgiving, they found her with the drugs that had turned her life to tragedy.
On Monday, Richardson, 28, walked into the Santa Clara County courtroom in shackles next to her boyfriend Derek Rayo, 27. It was the San Jose couple’s first court appearance to face murder charges in the fentanyl overdose death of their 19-month-old daughter Winter — the third South Bay child younger than 2 killed by the deadly opioid in six months.
“We’re devastated right now,” Richardson’s mother, Amy Richardson, said in the hallway before entering the courtroom.
Richardson’s parents declined to answer any other questions, leaving their daughter’s Facebook page showing her cheerleading pictures and Sharks jerseys and cat rescues to give a glimpse into her life before fentanyl took over.
Rayo’s upbringing appeared far less idyllic, according to court records. He once told police he had been using methamphetamine since he was 12. He has a criminal record for heroin possession and auto theft, and in 2016 was convicted of felony battery for beating up a fellow inmate in county jail.
Richardson and Rayo are the first parents in Santa Clara County to be charged with murder in a fentanyl poisoning death of their child. During their arraignments Monday – the first step leading toward a murder trial – Superior Court Judge Johnny Cepeda Gogo denied them both bail. They are expected to enter pleas during a hearing set for Jan. 3.
Richardson will also undergo a mental health evaluation, at the request of her defense lawyer, Adrienne Dell.
Rayo had been in jail on an unrelated case when prosecutors filed the felony complaint on Nov. 17 in baby Winter’s death. Richardson, meanwhile, was arrested Wednesday. Police found her in San Jose with drugs and drug paraphernalia, Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Monroe Tyler said.
“It’s evidence of her continued use and her disregard of the danger that she poses to other people,” Tyler told reporters outside the courtroom Monday. “It supports our case in that she’s continuing to use despite these dangerous consequences.”
During the hearing Monday, Richardson’s parents – the grandparents of Winter – sat in the back row of the courtroom, catching a glimpse of their daughter who wore a yellow jail shirt and hung her head during much of the hearing. Rayo sat behind her in a red jail shirt.
According to the police department’s statement of facts in the case, Richardson and Rayo woke up the afternoon of Aug. 12 to find Winter unresponsive in their bed. They didn’t call police for another 10 hours, telling authorities they wanted time to grieve before being separated. By then, rigor mortis had set in and her lips were blue. When police arrived, they found fentanyl powder on the nightstand and a scraping tool near the baby. The fentanyl levels in her blood were 24 times the lethal dose for a child her size. Blood samples taken of Winter’s parents that day also found fentanyl and methamphetamine in their systems.
Winter, born on Christmas Eve 2021, became part of a grim and growing list of Bay Area youth claimed by fentanyl while in their parents’ care. In Fremont, 23-month-old Kristofer Ferreyra died in October and his mother, Sophia Gastelum-Vera, 26, is charged with involuntary manslaughter and felony child abuse. In San Jose, 3-month-old baby Phoenix Castro died in May and her father, David Castro, is charged with felony child endangerment. Four months after baby Phoenix’s death, her mother, Emily De La Cerda, also died of an overdose.
In each case, police found fentanyl littering the homes. In baby Phoenix’s case, crime lab analysis found fentanyl powder covering the infant’s pink flowered onesie.
Unlike the Phoenix case, however, Santa Clara County’s Department of Family and Children’s Services said they were not involved with Winter’s family before she died. The county’s child welfare agency has come under scrutiny for allowing Phoenix to go home from the hospital with her father despite the agency’s removal of his two older children from his care. He and De La Cerda both tested positive for drugs two months before the baby was born. De La Cerda spent time in jail and in treatment during most of the baby’s life.
In the courtroom Monday, the judge informed Rayo and Richardson of their rights and the gravity of what lie ahead.
At the end of the hearing, Richardson turned to leave the courtroom, lifted her hand above her shackles and strained to wave to Rayo, the boyfriend she met at Pioneer High School. He smiled back.