The parents of a 1-year-old girl who died after ingesting fentanyl at a Brighton home on just the second day of 2022 face first degree murder charges in a case that illustrates the drug’s pernicious hold in Colorado, which has seen a dramatic spike in overdose cases over the years, particularly from opioid abuse.

“Fentanyl is literally killing children from every age group,” 17th Judicial District Attorney Brian Mason said at a press conference from his Brighton office Thursday.

The toddler was the first of five Colorado children to die of fentanyl-involved poisoning this year.

No child ever died of fentanyl poisoning before the year 2020, according to the Colorado Department of Health and Environment, which tracks the data.

Mason announced that a grand jury has indicted the child’s parents, Alonzo Montoya and Nicole Casias, both 31, on seven charges, including first degree murder of a victim under 12 by a person in a position of trust.

Montoya and Casias face six other charges, in addition to the murder count, including racketeering and various child abuse charges in relation to a second female child.

The indictment alleges Montoya and Casias were running a serious drug business, selling heavy narcotics like cocaine, methamphetamine and fentanyl disguised as oxycodone – blue pills marked with “M-30.” It said they often brought clients into their bedroom, even making transactions in front of their two children. It alleges they were exposing their kids to the drugs “at all hours of the day and night.”

The couple used cellphones and social platforms, such as Facebook Messenger, to contact clients and then turned to CashApp and Venmo to collect their money, according to the court document.

Montoya was the primary dealer and Casias packaged the product, cutting the cocaine powder with baking soda to make crack cocaine, the indictment alleges.

The document alleged that the couple deployed foot soldiers, who bought the drugs wholesale, paying around $5 apiece for one fentanyl pill. Besides their regulars, several major clients, some unnamed and some named, also funneled in and out of the couple’s home for drugs.

On the first day of the New Year, the couple obtained a large amount of fentanyl and opened up their home to sell it, the indictment states. Just after midnight on Jan. 2, the 1-year-old was found dead from acute fentanyl toxicity, the Adams County coroner said.

Her autopsy states that she died from ingesting the poisonous drug.

Mason said it’s easy for a child to mistake the small, multi-colored pills for candy.

“People are even referring to these pills as Skittles,” Mason said. “A child won’t know that a small, beautifully-colored pill isn’t safe to take.”

Mason said the cartels manufacture the pills to look like candy on purpose. He wouldn’t say how many pills the baby ate.

The indictment says the couple continued to run their business until March 2022, three months after their baby died from the product they allegedly sold.

The couple is also accused of putting a second child, a female of unknown age, in danger. That child is “safe,” Mason told reporters Thursday.

The indictment identifies several regular clients and claims that one of them, a Joshua Brewster, spent thousands of dollars buying hundreds of pills from the alleged drug operation that Montoya and Casias ran at a bulk price. Montoya and Brewster would meet to exchange money and drugs at bars, in parks and at Brewster’s home, the indictment adds.

In addition to the drug operation, the couple is accused of scheming to pocket extra money, defrauding the government of thousands of dollars. The indictment describes one instance where they sold food stamps for cash, and adds that, in April of 2021, they applied for a Payroll Protection Program loan of $15,625

The couple’s 1-year-old was one of four children – aged 9 and under – who have died from fentanyl poisoning from January to July of this year, according to statistics provided by Kirk Bol of the Colorado Department of Health and Environment. That’s compared to the entire year of 2021, when five children died of fentanyl poisoning, and to 2020, when one or two died.

There is no record that any Colorado children under 9 died from ingesting fentanyl before the year 2020.

The indictment serves as a stark contrast to prosecutor’s decision not to pursue charges in the high-profile deaths of five people in Commerce City last March. In the case, Mason said his office simply lacks the evidence to bring charges against anyone.

Mason said that the case of the 1-year-old child is different in that a grand jury listened to all of the evidence.

“We were not in that posture on the Commerce City case unfortunately,” he said. “We did not have the evidence to prove or charge anyone with those deaths.”