Nicole Casias sentenced to 24 years in prison for fentanyl death of toddler

July 16, 2024

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The mother of a 22-month-old Brighton toddler who died of a fentanyl overdose in 2022 was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, 17th District Court Judge Kyle Seedorf sentenced Nicole Danielle Casias, 32, to 22 years in prison for child abuse resulting in death – one year for each month her daughter was alive before the overdose – according to court records.

According to court records, Seedorf also sentenced Casias to two years in prison for drug possession with intent to resell and ordered her to pay nearly $5,500 in various attorney fees, restitution and surcharges.

According to court records, Casias pleaded guilty to both counts during a hearing in May. As part of a plea agreement, she had additional charges of first-degree murder, organized crime, conspiracy and child abuse removed from her case.

The mother was arrested in January 2022 after her daughter Aviyana Montoya was found unconscious in her crib.

Aviyana’s parents – Alonzo Ray Montoya and Casias – were initially arrested on child abuse charges and later indicted by a grand jury on first-degree murder, child abuse resulting in death, organized crime and conspiracy.

Investigators found that Aviyana had taken ten times the amount of fentanyl needed to kill an adult and that she was in the same room where her parents used and sold drugs. No one cared for her for nearly 14 hours.

Another Adams County judge, Don Quick, dismissed the first-degree murder charge against both parents because there was no evidence that the parents “knowingly caused” their daughter’s death, even though they spent hours in another room using and selling drugs while their daughter’s condition continued to deteriorate and were unaware of her loud cries of pain.

Aviyana’s father, Montoya, was found guilty in January of child abuse resulting in death, organized crime and other charges and sentenced to 40 years in prison.

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