SAN JOSE, Calif. (KRON) — A San Jose man who was called “baby killer” by a key witness will appear in court Friday to face new murder charges.
Philip Michael Ortega was previously charged with murdering Baby Winter, who was poisoned at home by fentanyl allegedly supplied to her parents by Ortega. The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office announced new murder charges were filed against Ortega for the death of Baby Phoenix, who was poisoned by fentanyl at home in 2023 just three months before Baby Winter died.
Ortega will appear in court alongside Phoenix’s father, 40-year-old David Anthony Castro, who is also facing new charges. Prosecutors increased the severity of charges filed against Castro from felony child endangerment to murder this week.
The DA’s office wrote, “New evidence shows that Castro sought and Ortega provided drugs to Castro the night before his daughter was found dead in the home. Ortega also provided the deadly drugs that led to the death of Baby Winter just 91 days later.”
District Attorney Jeff Rosen said, “The senseless deaths of these two little girls broke our hearts yet hardened our determination to hold responsible the people whose recklessness killed them. The fact that the same man provided the fatal drugs that took the lives of Baby Phoenix and Baby Winter within a handful of months of each other is beyond shocking.”
If convicted, Castro and Ortega will face life in prison, prosecutors said.
Phoenix and Winter shared tragically similar lives at home, according to court documents. Their mothers and fathers were all drug addicts who used the same drug dealer, 33-year-old Ortega, investigators said.
“The murder charges now connect the two separate child fentanyl overdose cases that outraged the community and led to deep scrutiny and changes in the county’s practices of trying to protect children in abusive households,” the DA’s office wrote Friday.
Both babies’ fathers told San Jose Police Department detectives similar stories about how they died. Castro claimed that he fell asleep with Phoenix on a couch watching television, and when he woke up, she had died. Winter’s father, Derek Rayo, told detectives that he may have rolled over on top of Winter while they were co-sleeping together in a bedroom.
“Winter’s parents waited more than 12 hours before calling 911 to report that their daughter was dead. Castro delayed calling for medical help for hours while he scrambled to get someone to bring him synthetic urine from a nearby smoke shop to hide his drug use,” the DA’s office wrote.
Phoenix and Winter have the same official cause of death: a toxic combination of methamphetamine and fentanyl, according to the medical examiner’s autopsies.
Ortega was living with Baby Winter’s parents in San Jose when she died. He had previously lived with Baby Phoenix’s parents at a different San Jose home. His story about where he was, and what he was doing, when Winter died has changed several times in conversations with witnesses and detectives, according to court documents.
Winter was 19 months old when she died on August 12, 2023 inside her parents’ bedroom at 1550 Huddersfield Court. Her mother, Kelly Richardson, and father, Derek Rayo, were at home when Winter passed away, investigators said.
Richardson, Rayo, and Ortega are all slated to stand trial for the murder of Baby Winter.
Rayo’s defense attorneys wrote, “Derek Rayo may not have been a perfect father, but he did not murder his beautiful daughter. The prosecution utterly failed to present evidence that Mr. Rayo … acted with a malignant heart that would give rise to liability for implied malice.”
Investigators found messages sent to Ortega through his social media accounts and phone. In one of the messages, a woman who regularly bought fentanyl from Ortega called him a “baby killer,” according to court documents. The woman told investigators that she had warned Ortega to not use drugs around Winter, prosecutors wrote.
“Mr. Ortega was blowing smoke all around the baby. (The woman) got mad and told Mr. Ortega that she didn’t do that around kids. Mr. Ortega told her it was not a big deal, stating, ‘I always do this. It’s fine, nothing’s going to happen to her,’” court documents show.
Phoenix was only three months old when she died the day before Mother’s Day, May 13, 2023, with fentanyl powder splotched on her pink onesie. Phoenix’s mother, Emily DeLaCerda, arrived home from rehab and screamed, “My baby is dead,” a police report states.
In the hours leading up to his daughter’s death, Castro had sent text messages to his drug dealer asking, “You got that strong s**t? Let me know.” court documents state.
Castro had sole custody of Phoenix, and they lived together in an apartment at 5479 Spinnaker Walkway. DeLaCerda was either in jail or rehab for the majority of her daughter’s very short life. DeLaCerda died from a fentanyl overdose on September 16, 2023 inside the same apartment on Spinnaker Walkway, police said.
Castro’s defense attorneys are currently fighting for his case to be diverted out of criminal court and into mental health treatment programs, a legal process called Mental Health Diversion. The defense argues that the father’s mental disorders — primarily drug addictions — make him suitable for Mental Health Diversion.
