San Jose: Housemates charged as new murder defendants in 1-year-old’s fentanyl death
SAN JOSE — A couple who lived at the same home where 1-year-old Winter Rayo was found dead last year with a horrifically lethal amount of fentanyl in her body will join the child’s parents as unprecedented murder defendants in her death, according to court documents. South Bay residents Phil Ortega, 32, and Paige Vitale, 33, are accused of negligently leaving narcotics around the home off Southwest Expressway where first responders were called Aug. 12 and discovered that Winter had been dead for more than half a day. An autopsy determined that Winter’s blood contained 24 times the lethal dose of fentanyl for her age. Kelly Gene Richardson, left, and Derek Rayo, mother and father of 1-year-old Winter Rayo, who died of a fentanyl overdose in August, appear for their arraignment on Monday, Nov. 27, 2023, at Santa Clara Hall of Justice in San Jose, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group) Last fall, Derek Rayo and Kelly Richardson became the first parents in Santa Clara County to be charged with murder in the fentanyl-exposure death of their child. Investigators with the Santa Clara County District