Nico Nuño-Kelley was a straight A student with a winning smile.
‘A little burst of sunshine,’ his mother, Kathleen Kelley, called him.
Then, on a rainy day in Manhattan last May, he took a puff of a weed vape – and his life evaporated.
The 17-year-old climbed to the roof of his family’s Gramercy Park apartment, before plunging six stories to his death.
Nico’s fall remains shrouded in mystery. But his grieving mother is convinced a high-potency vape – obtained by a friend from one of New York’s countless illegal weed shops – sparked a psychotic episode.
Kathleen Kelley, 58, holds a framed photo of her son Nico Nuño-Kelley, who died last May aged 17 after he took a ‘few puffs’ from a weed vape before falling six stories from a rooftop
Friends who were with Nico at the time said he ‘freaked out’ after inhaling the vape, according to a report compiled by a private investigator. His death was ruled an accident
Kathleen, 58, a commodities adviser, is now determined that her son’s tragic death finally jolts lackadaisical lawmakers into action and puts an end to their laid back approach to drugs.
‘I’m hoping that no other parent ever has to go through this,’ she told DailyMail.com. ‘The city, the state, the country is doing nothing to stop it. We want to do something to stop it.’
Anatomy of a fall
In the hours before his death, Nico had been at home with two friends. A girl he had known since childhood and her boyfriend.
Nico had taken a ‘big hit’ from a weed vape that the boyfriend had given him, according to a report by a private investigator, which is based on interviews with Nico’s friends and text messages they sent each other on that fateful day.
Nico had smoked marijuana on occasion before, but was not a habitual user, friends said.
Perhaps his tolerance was low. But no one could have expected the devastating turn he was about to take.
At first, he sat back on a couch, laughing, his friends said. Then, he ‘freaked out’.
Nico started to cry out. ‘No, I don’t like this; I don’t like this!’ he wailed.
He began clawing at the walls and fell to the floor in the fetal position, the report said.
‘Oh f***, oh f***!,’ he yelled – at one point saying that he felt ‘autistic’.
He ran toward his room, while his two friends stayed in the kitchen.
A minute or two later, one of the friends went to his room to look for him, but found it empty. The next thing they heard was the roof alarm.
Around ten minutes later, a neighbor from the adjacent building rushed into the lobby with news of a horrifying discovery.
Nico had landed face first on a 50-gallon drum that was being used to support a shrub, before flipping backwards and landing on the roof next door, security footage later showed.
A toxicology report revealed high levels of THC – the psychoactive substance in marijuana – in Nico’s system. Kathleen believes it triggered a psychotic episode that led to his death
Nico was the youngest of three siblings. Pictured here in around 2017/18 with sister Tara, now 24, and brother Alejandro, 26. Tara said Nico was the ‘glue’ that held the family together
Nico had won a place at Notre Dame University. Pictured above aged around 7 or 8 years old
Nico fell six stories from the roof of his family apartment building in Gramercy Park, Manhattan, (pictured above) onto the roof of the building next door
Kathleen was driving to a friend’s in Connecticut when she received the heartbreaking call.
At first, she did not believe the police detective.
‘He said there had been an accident and Nico had died. It didn’t make any sense to me,’ she recalls.
She asked to speak to his supervisor and was given a number.
As she was dialing from a roadside parking lot, her friend called. She told Kathleen that her older son, Alejandro Nuño-Kelley, 26, who was on holiday in Peru, had been trying to reach her.
He had also been contacted by detectives.
Kathleen’s friend asked her where she was. ‘I’m so sorry,’ she added.
That was when Kathleen knew her son was dead.
She got out of the car, walked through the pouring rain into the woods and lay in the mud.
Her friend picked her up and drove her to the morgue in Manhattan.
‘It was the vape’
There is no cast iron evidence that proves Nico died as a result of smoking the weed pen.
The boyfriend has refused to cooperate with the police. The vape has never been recovered.
It is not clear whether he jumped or slipped, but his friends believe he likely slid off the wet roof, according to the private investigator’s report.
Nico had not shown any signs of depression, his friends and family said.
The medical examiner’s office ruled the death an accident, caused by multiple blunt impact injuries.
A toxicology report did, however, reveal high levels of THC – the psychoactive substance in marijuana – in Nico’s system.
No other drug traces were found.
An NYPD detective at the scene told the private investigator that he believed ‘the reaction Nico had to the weed pen contributed to the cause of death’, according to his report.
Nico and his family had for a while lived in London and he had dreamed of studying at Oxford University, his mother said. Pictured above with sister Tara
Kathleen recalled her son’s ‘great smile’ which he always wore ‘no matter what’
From left: Tara, Alejandro, Nico and Kathleen at the US Formula 1 Grand Prix in Austin
Kathleen is convinced. ‘It [the vape] was 100 per cent responsible for his death,’ she said.
High doses of THC can cause severe panic or stress, but triggering the sort of reckless impulses that led to Nico’s death would be extremely unusual, according to Dr. Benjamin Caplan, chief medical officer at the CED Clinic in Needham, Mass., which helps people seeking cannabis treatment.
‘Cannabis-associated psychotic episodes’ are rare. But not unheard of.
A 19-year-old man in Colorado died after eating a cookie with high levels of THC and jumping from a fourth-floor balcony, according to a 2015 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In 2021, a 19-year-old Penn State student plunged 11 stories down a trash chute after consuming alcohol and marijuana.
Young people with mental health conditions are at greater risk, but Nico had no history of mental illness, his mother said.
Dr. Caplan, who has reviewed Nico’s medical reports, told DailyMail.com that the level of THC in his system was ‘significant and could indeed induce psychoactive effects’.
But he added: ‘The behavior leading to a high-risk situation like climbing a building is complex and might not solely be explained by cannabis use…Without definitive evidence, these remain hypotheses that would need further investigation.’
Hoping for change
It is hard to know exactly how much THC was in Nico’s system because it disappears from the bloodstream more quickly than other substances.
Kathleen, however, said detectives had told her that the weed vape must have been extremely high strength.
Anything above 20 per cent THC is considered potent, but some vape oils can hit up to 90 per cent.
In interviews with the private investigator, Nico’s friends said he had smoked a ‘laced’ cartridge and that the vape manufacturer was known to be ‘sketchy’.
The easy availability of such products is exactly what legalization was supposed to eradicate.
Instead, the opposite has happened.
There are 140 recreational dispensaries operating statewide, yet anywhere from 2,000 to 8,000 illegal shops operating in New York City alone.
Recent crackdowns have temporarily shuttered just over 400 – a drop in the bucket.
These shops are able to undercut the legal stores because they are not weighed down by costly regulations and taxation.
They offer the same high – or an even greater one – at a fraction of the price.
They also sell to teenagers.
Kathleen, a commodities adviser who owns her own company, is determined that her son’s death sparks New York officials to shut down thousands of illegal weed shops in the city
Dr. Caplan said illegal smoke shops frequently mismarket their products, incorrectly labelling their THC content.
He said it was possible that whoever bought the vape ‘didn’t know what they were buying’.
The state’s main regulator, the Office of Cannabis Management, was given almost no enforcement power when legalization first came into effect, and its powers remain too weak, its executive director, Chris Alexander, told a State Senate subcommittee before resigning in June.
It took until May of this year for the city to launch a multi-agency taskforce aimed at shutting down unlicensed stores.
Kathleen has accused officials of ‘looking the other way’ when it comes to illegal weed.
She is working with other parents who say their children have also suffered cannabis-associated psychotic episodes with the intention of taking the issue to the mayor, governor and, ultimately, Congress.
Her aim: to assemble evidence that illegal smoke shops are selling marijuana to minors and shut them down.
She has started by hiring a lawyer to try to build a case against whoever sold the vape that Nico used, although this is already proving tricky without cooperation from the boyfriend.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office found no evidence of criminality in Nico’s case.
Kathleen, who is separated from Nico’s father, Hilario Nuño, accepts that no charges are ever likely to be brought. Instead, she hopes that ‘something good’ can come from his death.
As well as enforcement, she wants to raise awareness over the dangers of illegal weed.
She says legalization has encouraged a pro-cannabis culture, rather than one that exercises caution.
‘We want parents to have these conversations with their children – that marijuana can be dangerous,’ she said.
‘They stole his future’
Tara Nuño-Kelley, 24, remembers her younger brother as the ‘glue’ between the three siblings.
A personality beyond his years.
Kathleen recalled his ‘great smile’, which he always wore ‘no matter what’.
‘We’d be going some place and he’d take my hand and walk down the street holding my hand,’ she added.
‘Not many 17-year-old boys would do that in front of the whole world.’
Kathleen sits on a bench dedicated to Nico’s memory in Gramercy Park, outside the family apartment. Nico would spend his afternoons after school reading here, his mother said
Nico died on Saturday, May 20, 2023. He had been due to attend his school awards ceremony on Tuesday. His prom was on Wednesday, graduation Thursday, and driving test Friday.
He had a place at Notre Dame University in Indiana.
‘Nico was a 17-year-old boy who had turned into a young man,’ Kathleen said, choking back tears as she spoke from the same apartment where her son had spent his final moments.
‘A stupid puff of a vape pen and then his life is over. How can that happen?
‘He had all the plans in the world and they stole his future from him. They stole his future from us.’
