Child Murder Trial Begins

[Pauli]

Jury cries for Nixzmary Brown
BY SCOTT SHIFREL and TRACY CONNOR
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Thursday, January 17th 2008, 4:00 AM
http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2008/01/17/amd_cesar.jpg
Cesar Rodriguez is escorted by cops after his arrest in January 2006. His defense team tried to pin blame on Nixzmary's mother, Nixzaliz Santiago.
http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2008/01/17/amd_ulvis.jpg
Neighbor Ulvis Rivera leaves Brooklyn Supreme Court (r.) after testifying about arriving in apartment as stepdad Cesar Rodriguez tried to do CPR on Nixzmary Brown.
http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2008/01/17/amd_nix3.jpg
Nixzmary Brown (r.)

The Nixzmary Brown murder trial dissolved into tears right from the beginning, when jurors openly wept over a heartbreaking picture of the dead girl's battered body.

The color photograph - the most powerful piece of evidence in prosecutors' arsenal - provided a stark counterpoint to the defense's shocking blame-the-victim strategy.

The 8-by-10-inch picture showed the 7-year-old lying on a wooden floor, a pair of red sweatpants hanging off her malnourished frame.

Bruises covered her torso. Her half-opened eyes were blackened.
Ugly cuts bore witness to the life of pain that ended in a Brooklyn apartment two years ago, exposing deep flaws in the city's child welfare system.

As the picture was passed around the jury box yesterday, Juror No. 4 - a middle-aged woman with three grown kids - wiped tears from her eyes. At least three other jurors and one alternate cried at the disturbing image.

The high emotions underscored the challenge the lawyer for Nixzmary's stepdad, Cesar Rodriguez, faces in defending him against a murder rap.

In a risky move that could alienate the jury, lawyer Jeffrey Schwartz portrayed Nixzmary as a problem child who bullied, hurt and stole food from her siblings.

"Little Nixzmary Brown was quite a feisty youngster for whatever reason," he said.

His attempt to explain why Rodriguez locked Nixzmary in a room with a litter box as a toilet and tied her to a chair was later called "degrading and offensive" by a prosecutor.

"She was like a little Houdini trying to get out," Schwartz said. "She was feisty, spiky and funky."

He admitted Rodriguez slapped, spanked and whipped Nixzmary with a belt, but "he didn't do it with the intent to hurt."

Instead, Schwartz insisted the death blow came from her mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, who faces a separate murder trial. He said the mother blamed Nixzmary for causing her miscarriage three months earlier.

On Jan. 11, 2006, Rodriguez threw her into a cold shower, then left her in a back room - shivering and moaning, but alive, Schwartz said.

"And then, ladies and gentlemen, that's when Mommy Dearest takes over," he said.

Prosecutors scoffed at the defense's claim that Rodriguez was just an overwrought family man by reciting the outrages Nixzmary endured.
"He was no daddy," Assistant District Attorney Ama Dwimoh said.

"Daddies don't repeatedly pound their fists on their little girl's backs. They don't tie their hands and legs. Daddies don't bind their little girls to chairs.
"Daddies don't give their little girls two black eyes. Daddies don't let make their little girls use a litter box ... or pour icy water onto them in the middle of winter.

"Daddies don't beat their little girls to the extent that all they can do is moan. Daddies don't blame their children for their actions. Murderers do."
Dwimoh said Nixzmary existed in a prison of "systematic torture."

"It was inevitable her life would end the way it did: battered and beaten, left alone on the floor, moaning until she would no longer hold on to life."
Dwimoh's first witness was Ulvis Rivera, who lived upstairs from Nixzmary and was summoned to their apartment after she was killed.

Her voice cracked and her lips quivered as she described how she found the girl on the floor, with Rodriguez performing CPR.

"Her face was disfigured. She didn't have a pulse. She was not breathing," she said. "She was completely cold, like ice."

Dwimoh asked her if she recognized Exhibit 2B - the photo of Nixzmary.
As Rivera looked at it, she could not hold her composure any longer and she broke down in tears.

Later, after the jury was dismissed for the day, Rivera collapsed into her daughter's arms, her body heaving with sobs for the "feisty" girl failed by her family and the city.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/01/17/2008-01-17_jury_cries_for_nixzmary_brown.html

[Pauli]

Defense lawyer in Nixzmary case claims death threat

BY ANTHONY M. DESTEFANO |anthony.destefano@newsday.com
January 21, 2008

The defense attorney in the Nixzmary Brown murder case said yesterday that he had received what he called a death threat for representing the man accused of killing the 7-year-old girl.

"You had better watch your back," the anonymous male telephone caller said Friday, according to attorney Jeffrey Schwartz of Manhattan.

Schwartz said the caller's number didn't show up on his cell phone and he didn't report it to police. In recent months, Schwartz, who is defending Nixzmary's stepfather, Cesar Rodriguez, on murder charges, said he also had received what he called "harassing" calls from an anonymous woman.

Though he reported those calls to police about a year ago, Schwartz said nothing ever came of his complaints.

Still, Schwartz said he is pulling no punches in his defense of Rodriguez, 29, whose trial resumes tomorrow in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn. "It is the ultimate challenge," Schwartz said about his defense of the unpopular Rodriguez.

Prosecutors charged that Rodriguez and his wife, Nixzaliz Santiago, Nixzmary's mother, beat, tortured and starved the child for weeks, culminating in her death on Jan. 11, 2006. Police said Nixzmary was found dead on a bedroom floor in the family's apartment at 571 Greene Ave. in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Much of Nixzmary's body was severely bruised and she was malnourished.

Investigators said Nixzmary was finally beaten to death by Rodriguez after he became enraged with the child for stealing some yogurt from the refrigerator and jamming his computer printer.

Schwartz denied that his strategy includes trying to blame Nixzmary for causing her own death by misbehaving.

"God forbid," Schwartz said. "She was a frisky and spunky kid. They [Rodriguez and Santiago] handled it the wrong way. I am not saying for a millisecond she deserved what she got."

But Schwartz contends that Santiago, who faces a charge of second-degree depraved indifference murder in a trial slated for the spring, is the one responsible for her daughter's death.

A bottle that is believed to have contained a human fetus or embryo that Santiago kept on her dresser is evidence that she was disturbed by a miscarriage, which she blamed on Nixzmary, Schwartz said.

"Evidence shows that the mother kept [the fetus]. The mother ritualized it," said Schwartz. "The father [Rodriguez] didn't want it. The father thought it was sick. He thought it was whacked out."

But relatives of Nixzmary said Friday Santiago's behavior doesn't excuse Rodriguez from abusing Nixzmary.

"He didn't come forward as a stepfather to stop the beating of the child," said Awilda Cordero, a spokeswoman for relatives of Nixzmary.

The trial continues tomorrow before Judge Priscilla Hall and is expected to last two or three weeks. Rodriguez faces up to life in prison if convicted.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-nynixz215546504jan21,0,1907576.story

[Roamer]

I read before the trial where the attorney said she was a danger to the other children. I can just see a 35 lb starving child menacing other children.

This case is just heartbreaking. He was no daddy to her. He was a monster.

I wonder if the mother's defense will claim PPD?

[Pauli]

Jan 17, 2008 12:22 am US/Eastern

Opening Statements Given In Nixzmary Brown Case

Child Tragedy: Nixzmary Brown (http://wcbstv.com/topstories/nixzmary.brown.cesar.2.241604.html)

NEW YORK (CBS) ― Opening statements were underway this afternoon in the murder trial of the stepfather of Nixzmary Brown, the 7-year-old who prosecutors say was beaten and starved to death two years ago.

Prosecutors Wednesday described to jurors the prison that Brown lived in day in and day out. In their opening statements, attorneys told jurors the 7-year-old was repeatedly tied to a chair, bound like an animal, continuously beaten with fists and belts and forced to use a litter box to go to the bathroom.

The young girl's stepfather, Cesar Rodriguez, is being tried for her murder.

According to Rodriguez's attorney, Jeffrey Schwartz, however, his client is not the monster. Instead he points his finger at the child's mother.

"The mother brutalized, beat the daughter, and caused the daughter to go to the hospital with very similar injuries," Schwartz said. "The only difference and the only twist is she didn't kill her the first time, but she killed her the second time."

The fatal beating came after the child's mother apparently discovered a yogurt missing from the refrigerator, before Rodriguez discovered his computer printer was broken.

Prosecutors say Nixzmary was beaten that night, tossed under freezing cold water, then thrown on the floor, left to die.

"He disclipined the child when the mother asked him to," said Schwartz. "He didn't do it with ill intent, he didn't do it to hurt the child, he didn't do it to maim the child, and he definitely didn't do it to kill the child."

Brown's grandmother was silent as she made her way past the cameras for the first day of the trial, but she was not allowed to stay in the courtroom due to the fact she is being called as a witness.

The case shed light on the administration for children's services after the case fell through the cracks. In this case, child welfare workers had been at the home twice, yet reported no conclusive evidence of abuse.

There had been other warning signs for years before Brown died from a vicious blow to the head.

School employees had reported that she had been absent for weeks the previous year. Neighbors noticed unexplained injuries and noted the child appeared underfed and small for her age.

Nixzmary's personal hell is likely to be exposed at the trial through symbols of her horrific demise: the rope used to tether her to a chair, the cat-litter box she used as a toilet, the bathtub used to dunk her under cold water.

Authorities say evidence against her stepfather includes crime-scene photos in the family's three-bedroom apartment and a videotape of the defendant casting blame on the malnourished victim, who weighed 45 pounds at the time of her death.

"Sometimes she used to get me real angry and I used to just throw her," Rodriguez said during a post-arrest interview made public during a family court hearing.

Prosecutor Ama Dwimoh has called it a case of torture.

Nixzmary "was beaten repeatedly," Dwimoh said. "She was bound like an animal."

The case, coupled with a series of high-profile deaths of children known to child welfare workers, sparked a public outcry. City officials and lawmakers responded by bolstering the corps of caseworkers and drafting legislation to give life in prison without parole to parents who cause the death of a child under 14 through abuse.

Nixzmary's torment began making headlines shortly after Jan. 1, 2006, when her mother reported that she found the girl unconscious around 4 a.m. in a home where she was raising five other children, ages 6 months to 9 years. Nixzmary was dead at the scene.

Prosecutors allege that after the mother and Rodriguez were arrested, they found evidence Nixzmary had been confined to a ramshackle back room with the cat box. They also claim the stepfather incriminated himself by seeking to portray the victim as an unruly child who courted punishment by harassing her siblings and "always lying to me."

Rodriguez, 29, admitted on video that he restrained the girl "by putting duct tape on her hand and tying her to a chair."

On Nixzmary's final night, he said, she enraged him following the missing yogurt and broken computer printer debacle. The punishment: holding her under cold water, just like his father had punished him. Investigators believe that in the process, he hit her head on a faucet, delivering the death blow.

"She was giving me a hard time, so I pounded her on her back," the stepfather said in his version. Later, he added, "I laid her naked on the bed and told my wife to leave her alone for a while."


video at site
http://wcbstv.com/local/nixzmary.brown.trial.2.630702.html

[Hope]

:1222423:

[Pauli]

January 19, 2008
Evidence Shown in Nixzmary Brown Murder Trial


http://gothamist.com/attachments/jen/2008_01_chairnb.jpg
We hope the jurors in the Nixzmary Brown murder trial get this weekend to relax, because the first few days of the trial have been intense. After the emotional opening statements on Wednesday (http://gothamist.com/2008/01/17/7yearolds_life.php), the prosecution showed a glimpse into the 7-year-old girl's tortured life.

The prosecution contends that stepfather Cesar Rodriguez's abuse of Nixzamary led to her death. Rodriguez and her mother Nixzaliz Santiago were raising a total of six children in a small Brooklyn apartment, on a January night in 2006, after Nixzmary "stole" some yogurt she was not allowed, Rodriguez lost his temper, beat her and held her under water. (Rodriguez, who admitted to beating her on many occasions, was punishing her for putting toys in the printer; she was 36 pounds and starving - 7-year-olds in the 50th percentile are around 50-55 pounds).

The NY Times listed some of the grim evidence (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/18/nyregion/18nixzmary.html) found the apartment: "A child’s wooden school chair with a length of nylon twine tied to it. A bloodstained Donald Duck pillow. A cat litter box and its contents, 13 lumps of human excrement. A blanket trailing a piece of duct tape." Jurors also saw bungee cords (http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/01/18/2008-01-18_tools_of_nixzmary_browns_torture.html) used to tie Nixzmary up. The Daily News has a gallery (http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/galleries/nixmary_evidence/nixmary_evidence.html) - warning, it's got some disturbing images.

The prosecution also showed photographs of the family's refrigerator (http://www.nypost.com/seven/01192008/news/regionalnews/feast__famish_476501.htm), full of food, seemingly to rebuke the defense argument that Rodriguez was trying to conserve food, since the family was so poor. Detective Joseph Bello said, "In the middle shelf, you see a Jell-O product, a yogurt container. You can see that some are missing from the container. It's not a full package." Bello also said of seeing Nixzmary's body, ""She was severely bruised, a purple tint covered almost her whole body."

The defense seized upon a photograph of a jar from the apartment. Lawyer Jeffrey Schwartz contended that it contained a fetus (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/19/nyregion/19nixzmary.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin) and that Nixzaliz Santiago's miscarriage made her unstable and violent towards her daughter. Schwartz later told reporters, "It really shows how demented that woman was." (A source says it's not exactly a fetus, but it is tissue from a miscarriage.) Santiago will face a separate murder trial for her daughter's death.

http://gothamist.com/2008/01/19/evidence_shown.php

[Pauli]

January 17, 2008
7-Year-Old's Life of "Systemic Torture"


http://gothamist.com/attachments/jen/2008_01_nixzmary.jpg
Yesterday, a jury heard opening statements in the Nixzmary Brown murder trial. Her stepfather, Cesar Rodriguez, faces charges of second-degree murder, after the 7-year-old Brooklyn girl spent her final hours beaten and having her head hit against the bathtub faucet (http://gothamist.com/2006/01/13/tragic_life_and.php) and held under water, after a life where she was repeatedly beaten, tied to a chair, starved, and made to use a litter box.

The jurors cried when they saw a photograph of the child's dead body (http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/01/17/2008-01-17_jury_cries_for_nixzmary_brown.html) from January 2006. Per the Daily News, "the 8-by-10-inch picture showed the 7-year-old lying on a wooden floor, a pair of red sweatpants hanging off her malnourished frame. Bruises covered her torso. Her half-opened eyes were blackened." Her body also had "ugly cuts." To counter the power of the photograph and media coverage of the case, the defense strategy was to "blame the victim" - and the victim's mother.

Defense lawyer Jeffrey Schwartz said Nixzmary terrorized her siblings, "She was like a little Houdini trying to get out," admitting that Rodriguez would discipline her by whipping her with a belt.

The night she died, Schwartz said his client beat her because she stole yogurt (that Rodriguez specifically wouldn't allow her) but said, "When you’re poor and you can’t afford unlimited amounts of food and you have six children, you have to make sure that everyone gets what they’re entitled to get, so that you can ensure that everyone stays healthy.” (Nixzmary was severely malnourished, weighing 35 pounds, the typical weight for a 3 or 4-year-old.) Schwartz added that the girl was alive before her mother Nixzaliz Santiago tended to her, "And then, ladies and gentlemen, that's when Mommy Dearest takes over." Santiago will face murder charges in a separate trial.

Prosecutor Ama Dwimoh said (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/17/nyregion/17nixzmary.html?ref=nyregion) of Rodriguez:Daddies don't repeatedly pound their fists on their little girl's backs. They don't tie their hands and legs. Daddies don't bind their little girls to chairs. Daddies don't give their little girls two black eyes. Daddies don't let make their little girls use a litter box ... or pour icy water onto them in the middle of winter. Daddies don't beat their little girls to the extent that all they can do is moan. Daddies don't blame their children for their actions. Murderers do.Dwimoh described the child's life as one of "systemic torture," "It was how she died that tells us how she lived. And it was because of how she lived that she died." The first witness, neighbor Ulvis Rivera who was called when Nixzmary was found unconscious, broke down on the stand (http://www.nypost.com/seven/01172008/news/regionalnews/images_of_her_agony_879626.htm). She admitted that Rodriguez was administering CPR, but said the girl was clearly dead, "She was on the floor. Her face was disfigured. She had no pulse. She wasn't breathing... She had bruises all over her face."

Nixzmary Brown's death, as well as others, forced changes at the Administration for Children's Services (http://gothamist.com/2006/01/19/nixz.php), which had been aware of problems in the home (teachers noticed the girl missed 46 days of school the prior fall). Last fall, the agency announced retired police detectives would work with caseworkers (http://gothamist.com/2007/10/22/childrens_servi.php).

http://gothamist.com/2008/01/17/7yearolds_life.php

[Pauli]

IMAGES OF HER AGONY
TRIAL OPENS AMID TEARS

By ALEX GINSBERG


http://www.nypost.com/seven/01172008/photos/news010.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:SLIDES.hotlink%28%29)

'PUNISHMENT':After Nixzmary's slaying, a detective carries away the chair to which she was frequently bound as punishment.

January 17, 2008 -- A neighbor who called 911 the night 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown was beaten to death broke down in tears on the witness stand yesterday as she gazed at a photo of the semi-naked dead girl - her body badly bruised and with two black eyes - lying on a mortuary slab.

Ulvis Rivera, a home-care aide and mother of six, took charge of the situation on Jan. 11, 2006, after Nixzmary's mother came to her at 4:30 a.m. Seeing through Nixzaliz Santiago's lie that her little girl had drowned in a bathtub, Rivera called 911.

PHOTOS: Images of the Nixzmary trial (http://www.nypost.com/seven/01172008/news/regionalnews/nixzmary/photo01.htm)
But on the stand during the first day of the sensational murder trial of Nixzmary's stepfather, Cesar Rodriguez, Rivera dabbed away tears and held her hand to her forehead as she forced herself to look at the graphic picture and identify the body as that of the troubled little girl who lived downstairs.

The awful photo also brought tears to the eyes of five jurors who, minutes into the first witness testimony, pulled tissues from their purses and sniffled as they passed the grisly image around.

They all showed more humanity than the couple accused of killing her.
Rodriguez showed no reaction when he glanced quickly at the photo as it was shown to his lawyers. He'd been shown the same photo last week during a pre-trial hearing, and simply looked away.

The girl's mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, was even colder.

The neighbor described how a nonchalant Santiago knocked on her door that morning - with all the urgency of a trip out to borrow a cup of sugar - to report that her daughter "had drowned."

The concerned Rivera rushed down and came upon the awful scene.
"The girl was on the floor, and Cesar was right next to her," Rivera said. "She was on the floor. Her face was disfigured. She had no pulse. She wasn't breathing . . . She had bruises all over her face.

"It felt completely cold, like ice."

Referring to the girl's mother, prosecutor Ama Dwimoh asked, "Did she appear panicked?"

"No."

"Did she appear calm?"

"Yes."

The wrenching testimony followed opening statements during which prosecutors painted a picture of a depraved couple who routinely beat, starved and tied up their 35-pound daughter.


http://www.nypost.com/seven/01172008/news/regionalnews/images_of_her_agony_879626.htm

[Pauli]

Brooklyn http://www.ny1.com/ny1/images/beats/blank_stories.gif http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/images/live/107/213989.jpg Stepfather's Confession In Nixzmary Brown Murder Case Played In Court

November 23, 2006

Prosecutors played the taped confession of Nixzmary Brown's stepfather during a pre-trial hearing in court Wednesday. NY1's Solana Pyne filed the following report.

"How do you restrain her," an investigator is heard on the tape asking Rodriguez. "By putting duct tape on her hands and tying her to a chair," Rodriguez responded.

"How do you tie her to the chair," the investigator continued. "With a small, damp white rope," said Rodriguez.

It was a chilling statement by the man prosecutors say beat his stepdaughter, 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown, to death. In a videotaped statement made to police the day Nixzmary's battered body was found in their Brooklyn apartment, Cesar Rodriguez describes a month of beatings and other punishment because he says, the girl – just 36 pounds when she died – kept misbehaving.

"What would you spank her with?" asked an investigator. "My hand, my belt," responded Rodriguez.

The video was shown Wednesday in a court hearing to determine whether or not it will be admitted as evidence when the case against Rodriguez and Nixzaliz Santiago, Nixzmary's mother, makes it to trial next year. He describes the night she died, when he punished her for taking a yogurt without his permission.

"I said, 'Where's the yogurt?' She didn't want to tell me so I told her, 'you know what, forget it, I don't want to deal with you anymore,'" said Rodriguez.

Later that same night, he says he found toys stuck in his printer and confronted her again. He says he put her naked in the bathtub and forced her head under cold running water

"I asked her if she did it. She didn't want to answer me so I turned off the water and I left her in the room," said Rodriguez.

He admitted to being the last to see her alive, but says he doesn't know where the blow came from that killed her.

"Your daughter has massive brain injury under the top of her head. How did it happen?" asked the investigator.

"I wouldn't know how she did that," Rodriguez responded.

Rodriguez described her final moans and how he thought she was faking her pain

"I thought that it was just one of her scams, because sometimes she would just lay down and make that noise. [What kind of noise?] Like she was hurt," he said.

Rodriguez's attorney says the statement was coerced. Police questioned him until he would tell them whatever they wanted to hear. But he also says it does not incriminate Rodriguez in Nixzmary's death.

"The DA was telling him things and he was sitting there and sort of agreeing with him. But when he was left to answer himself he didn't know what caused many of the injuries that they pointed to," said Rodriguez' attorney Jeffrey Schwartz.

The hearing is set to continue at the beginning of next month. That's when the court is expected to hear and see statements Nixzaliz Santiago made to police the day her daughter was found dead on the floor of their apartment.

Go to link and http://www.ny1.com/ny1/images/homepage/video_icon_02.gif <---- to see taped confession
http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=9&aid=64501

[Pauli]

Testimony Continues In Nixzmary Brown Murder Trial
http://www.ny1.com/ny1/images/homepage/video_icon_02.gif

During an emotional day two in the murder trial of Nixzmary Brown's stepfather Cesar Rodriguez, jurors heard first-hand accounts of futile attempts to resuscitate the girl after EMTs arrived on the scene.

Defense attorneys continued Thursday to cross-examine the prosecution’s first witness from the day before, Brooklyn neighbor Olis Rivera. Rivera broke down on the stand Wednesday when questioned by prosecutors.

On the stand, Rivera said that on January 11, 2006, Nixzmary’s mother – Nixzaliz Santiago – knocked on her door and asked for her help, saying that her seven-year-old daughter had drowned in the bathtub.

The defense focused on the neighbor’s statement that Rodriguez was giving the badly beaten, half-naked dead child CPR when she arrived, trying to argue that he was the only one trying to save the girl’s life.

Rivera also said there was little emotional reaction from either Rodriguez or Santiago. The defense also focused on her statement that Santiago, who they say beat Nixzmary to death, was unemotional. Prosecutors argue that Rodriguez was the one that dealt the final, fatal blow.

Rivera broke down in tears when prosecutors asked her about Rodriguez’s reaction at the home, saying “there’s a baby on the ground. I don’t know what to do, and everybody was calm.”

The first police officer on the scene also testified. He called Rodriquez’s attempts at CPR as half-hearted compressions, which he called ineffective.

“The theory of their case is that no one sought medical attention for the child, and I think after she testified it became abundantly clear that Cesar was the only one throughout the entire time before the emergency medical personnel came that was desperately trying to save that child,” said defense attorney Jeffrey Schwartz.

“It is clear that any attempts, if they were attempts at CPR, they were futile,” said Brooklyn Assistant District Attorney Ama Dwimoh. “It was all a part of his scam. She was dead.”

Later, prosecutors introduced alleged instruments of the girl’s abuse, including a chair, tape, and cords that were allegedly used to bind and hit her and a litter box where prosecutors say she was forced to defecate.

"When I think about Nixzmary Brown, I think today was a sad moment, because that's all that we know of Nixzmary now, is what we've put into evidence," said Dwimoh.

As another example of just how disturbing some are finding this case, the judge asked spectators to leave the courtroom if they did not think they could contain their emotions.

http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=1&aid=77586
Rodriguez faces up to life in prison if convicted. The trial continues Friday.

Santiago faces the same charges, but is being tried separately.

[Hope]

This poor angel. What she endured is beyond comprehension.

I hope these two worthless pieces of degenerate human waste get the death penalty.

[Pauli]

Unbelievable what some will put a child through...

[Pauli]

Nixzmary case cops found what appeared to be fetus


BY ANTHONY M. DESTEFANO |anthony.destefano@newsday.com 10:12 PM EST, January 18, 2008

Article tools
In a macabre twist to the murder case of 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown, police found what appeared to be the remains of a human fetus in a jar on a dresser in the apartment where she died, a detective testified Friday.

Det. Joseph Bello, a prosecution witness in the murder trial of Nixzmary's stepfather, Cesar Rodriguez, said during cross-examination that he was told, apparently by another law enforcement official, what the jar contained.

Bello wasn't asked who gave him the information. A spokesman for the Brooklyn district attorney's office wouldn't comment about what forensic tests determined was in the jar.

However, a legal source who didn't want to be identified because further evidence about the jar will be introduced later, said the material was not a fetus but "blood and tissue" that was the result of a miscarriage.

A police photograph used as evidence by defense attorney Jeffrey Schwartz showed a glass jar containing a mass of material in fluid.

Outside the Brooklyn courtroom Schwartz told reporters that the "bombshell" disclosure about the apparent human remains buttressed the defense claim that it was Nixzmary's mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, who killed her daughter. Schwartz has insisted that Santiago became angry with Nixzmary because she blamed the unruly child for the stress that led to a miscarriage in late 2005.

"It really shows how demented that woman was," Schwartz told reporters.

The attorney suggested that a grieving Santiago might have prayed to the jar and its contents.

"In some cultures people pray to that," explained the legal source familiar with the jar and its contents. "It is troubling because it shows what kind of home Nixzmary was living in."

Awilda Cordero, a spokeswoman for relatives of Nixzmary, said Rodriguez couldn't shift blame for the child's death to the mother's abusive conduct.

"He didn't come forward as a stepfather to stop the beating of the child," Cordero said.

Santiago was in court Friday in a separate proceeding to determine when she might go to trial for the same depraved indifference murder charges facing Rodriguez. Officials said Santiago could go to trial in March or April.

Earlier Friday, when questioned by prosecutor Linda Weinman, Bello said that when he arrived at Nixzmary's apartment on Greene Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant early on the morning of Jan. 11, 2006, he found her lying on the floor emaciated.

"She was severely bruised, a purple tint covered almost her whole body," Bello told the jury.

Prosecutors have charged that Rodriguez, 29, beat Nixzmary severely and injured her when he stuck her head under a running bathtub faucet to punish her for taking some yogurt and damaging his computer printer.

Bello said that there was no fingerprint evidence recovered from items removed from the apartment, such as the small chair Nixzmary was bound to and a child's plastic belt found in the apartment.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/ny-nynixz0119,0,826525.story?coll=ny_news_local_crime _promo

[Pauli]

Brooklyn http://www.ny1.com/ny1/images/beats/blank_stories.gifhttp://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/images/live/133/264763.jpgTestimony Continues In Nixzmary Brown Murder Trial
http://www.ny1.com/ny1/images/homepage/video_icon_02.gif January 22, 2008

An instrument used to beat seven-year-old Nixzmary Brown was presented Tuesday in the trial of Cesar Rodriguez, the man accused of her murder. NY1's Jeanine Ramirez filed the following report.

The belt that Cesar Rodriguez was wearing when police arrived at his apartment the morning Nixzmary Brown died was presented as evidence Tuesday.

Detective Carlos Pantoja testified that Rodriguez told him, "This is the belt I used to hit my daughter."

Rodriguez is accused of beating, starving, and killing the seven-year-old Brooklyn girl two years ago. He's pleaded not guilty.

His lawyers say just because he admitted to using his belt to punish Nixzmary for stealing his yogurt and jamming his printer, that doesn't mean he's a murderer.

"He didn't try to hide anything," said the defense's attorney, Jeffrey Schwartz. "He didn't try to distort anything. He didn't try to be evasive in any way."

Rodriguez's lawyers are shifting the blame to Nixzmary's mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, who's also charged with murder. She faces a separate trial.

Meanwhile, Rodriguez's lawyers submitted a picture detectives took in his apartment of a mug that reads "World's Greatest Dad."

"The last thing he was was the world's greatest dad, especially to Nixzmary Brown," said prosecutor Ama Dwimoh.

Prosecutors entered into evidence the blood-stained jeans Rodriguez was wearing.

"Of course the child's blood and DNA is going to be on him because he was right on top of her administering first aid," said Schwartz.

"You will hear who the blood belongs to and it's our position that it was not a result of any CPR," said Dwimoh. "It's our position that Nixzmary had been dead for quite some time when he started administering CPR."

Testimony from detectives who responded to the crime scene will continue Wednesday. Prosecutors still need to present evidence from the medical examiner and the statements made by Cesar Rodriguez before they wrap up their case sometime next week.

http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=9&aid=77754

[Pauli]

'World's Greatest Dad' mug surfaces at Nixzmary trial

http://www.newsday.com/media/photo/2008-01/34871806.jpg

Jeffrey Schwartz, who is defending Cesar Rodriquez, 29, for the January 2006 death of 7-year-old Nixzmary, introduced a photograph of a 'World's Greatest Dad' mug, which was found in the apartment where the child died, during cross examination of a detective. (Photo by Patrick McCarthy / January 22, 2008)

BY ANTHONY M. DESTEFANO | anthony.destefano@newsday.com 2:31 PM EST, January 22, 2008 A coffee mug inscribed with the words "The World's Greatest Dad" may have been purchased by little Nixzmary Brown for the stepfather now on trial for murdering her, a defense attorney said.

Jeffrey Schwartz, who is defending Cesar Rodriquez, 29, for the January 2006 death of 7-year-old Nixzmary, introduced a photograph of the mug, which was found in the apartment where the child died, during cross examination of a detective.

During a break in the trial Tuesday, Schwartz told reporters that he believed Nixzmary purchased the mug for Rodriguez in time for Father's Day in 2005.

"Ironically, I think Nixzmary bought it for him," said Schwartz, adding that further evidence will come at the trial.

Ama Dwimoh, Brooklyn assistant district attorney, said during a recess that while the mug may have proclaimed Rodriguez was the "World's Greatest Dad" he was anything but, based on the abuse he heaped on Nixzmary.

Prosecutors contend Rodriguez beat Nixzmary to death in a rage over her stealing food and jamming his computer printer.

The trial continues Tuesday before Brooklyn State Supreme Court Judge Priscilla Hall.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-nynixz0123,0,3925389.story

[Roamer]

Maybe she bought it to make him feel good so he'd stop abusing her.

Or, maybe one of the other kids bought it (I don't remember their ages right offhand). It isn't unusual for parents to abuse one child and not the others.

Why wouldn't the poor little thing steal food? They were starving her.:mad:

Degenerate POS. Both of them.

[LiveLaughLuv]

Defense seems to think this "World's Greatest Dad" mug is a proclamation of how Nixzmary felt for him. :rolleye0001: Does he want to give him the "father of the year" award?

While most little girls are "daddies little girl", could be this child was hoping for this, she wanted a daddy to love her and protect her, not torture, starve and kill her. The audacity of this defense attorney. :shock: I'd like to spend 15 minutes with them both. :mad:

Now he plays the blame game and wants to throw this all on the mother. IMO, they are both responsible for this and mom even more, she should have stopped this instead of egging him on and giving him the rights to abuse this child. They both should die for what they did to that precious child. I cried so hard when this first hit the news.

Look at her face, you can see the faded black eyes and swollen nose. This poor child even asked grandma to please take me with you, she was asking for help and family turned their backs on her. If my grandchild asked for me to take her with me, you best believe I'd sit down with her and find out what's wrong.

I am just hoping for justice for Nixzmary Brown. I am hoping for that day I hear LWOP for Cesar and Nixzaliz the parents from HELL!

[Pauli]

http://www.ny1.com/ny1/images/beats/blank_stories.gifhttp://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/images/live/133/264787.jpgDefense Tries To Paint Alleged Nixzmary Brown Killer As Honest Man
http://www.ny1.com/ny1/images/homepage/video_icon_02.gif

The defense in the Cesar Rodriguez murder trial, the man accused of killing his young stepdaughter Nixzmary Brown, will continue today to try to paint him as a decent and a man who was up front with police from the beginning.

Two detectives were called to the stand yesterday to talk about items they found at the scene.
Some of those items include a belt Rodriguez was wearing, blood stained jeans, and a "World's Greatest Dad" mug.

One of the detectives testified that Rodriguez told them he used the belt to punish the seven-year-old girl. Rodriguez's attorney says its testimony like that which helps his client.

"He didn't try to hide anything," said defense attorney Jeffrey Schwartz. "He didn't try to distort anything. He didn't try to be evasive in any way."

"The last thing [Rodriguez] was, was the world's greatest dad, especially to Nixzmary Brown," argued prosecutor Ama Dwimoh.

Nixzmary was found beaten to death in January 2006. Prosecutors say she suffered long-term abuse at the hands of Rodriguez and her mother, Nixzaliz Santiago. The defense has tried to shift the blame to Santiago -- who faces a separate murder trial.

http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=1&aid=77758

[Pauli]

Defense in Beating Death Points to Child’s Gift

By ANNIE CORREAL
Published: January 23, 2008

To bolster his case that a man accused of killing his 7-year-old stepdaughter is not guilty, the defense lawyer showed the jury on Tuesday a photo of a mug with the words “World’s Greatest Dad” — the girl’s gift to the defendant, he said.

The lawyer, Jeffrey T. Schwartz, has conceded that his client, Cesar Rodriguez, 29, beat the girl, Nixzmary Brown (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/nixzmary_brown/index.html?inline=nyt-per), and held her head under a bathtub faucet the night before she died. But he maintains that it was the girl’s mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, and not Mr. Rodriguez who delivered the fatal blow in their Brooklyn apartment on Jan. 11, 2006.

Outside the courtroom in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, Mr. Schwartz said the coffee mug was a Father’s Day gift in 2005. Mr. Schwartz says he believes Ms. Santiago took her older children shopping, and, he said, “Ironically, Nixzmary bought it for him.”

The lead prosecutor, Ama Dwimoh, said outside the courtroom: “I don’t know who bought it — ‘World’s Greatest Dad’ in the house where 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown was found, just feet away. As evidence comes out, it becomes clear that the last thing he was was ‘World’s Greatest Dad.’ ”

Also on Tuesday, lawyers cross-examined detectives who responded to the crime scene. Detective Joseph Bello, being questioned by Mr. Schwartz, said he had taken the photograph of the coffee mug with a large stuffed doll in it on the day the girl was found. Asked whether he knew if Nixzmary bought the mug, Detective Bello said, “No,” adding, “I just thought it was weird.”

Outside the courtroom, Mr. Schwartz said he hoped to show that the police had “made conclusions before they completed the investigation.” Mr. Schwartz added, “In their minds, they knew exactly what happened.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/23/nyregion/23nixzmary.html?bl&ex=1201237200&en=3ace211115c14bac&ei=5087%0A

[gramvof14]

OMG this is so sad what is the matter with parents that could do such dispicable things to a little child.Where were the neighbors someone had to have known this poor child was being tortured. I hope neither one of them see the light of day again. No good SOB'S

http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg238/gramvof14/sad.png

[Pauli]

There are so many links of DHS being involved and they let things slip through the crack.. I believe, it may be in one of the links, that the grandmother is filing a suit over it.

[LiveLaughLuv]

Judge postpones Nixzmary Brown trial for a day
BY ANTHONY M. DESTEFANO | anthony.destefano@newsday.com
January 24, 2008

The trial in the Nixzmary Brown murder case was unexpectedly postponed yesterday and the judge has prohibited the defense and the prosecution from talking about the reasons, attorneys said. Testimony is to resume today.

But while neither defense attorneys nor prosecutors were talking late yesterday, sources familiar with the case speculated that there has been new evidence uncovered that has to be reviewed.

Prosecutors with the Brooklyn district attorney's office were expected yesterday to call more police officers to the witness stand in the trial of Cesar Rodriguez, 29, the stepfather who is accused of murdering the 7-year-old Nixzmary in January 2006.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-nynixz245549580jan24,0,526732.story

[LiveLaughLuv]

Mystery evidence in Nixzmary trial
BY SCOTT SHIFREL and TRACY CONNOR
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Thursday, January 24th 2008, 4:00 AM

A shroud of secrecy enveloped the Nixzmary Brown trial Wednesday when both sides met behind closed doors about a mystery piece of evidence and the jury was sent home for the day.

Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Hall issued a gag order and both prosecutors and defense lawyers refused to divulge any details of the noontime meeting in chambers.

The matter could come to light this afternoon when court resumes - or when the defense begins presenting its case in the middle of next week.

Nixzmary's stepfather, Cesar Rodriguez, is charged with murder in the horrific child abuse death of the 7-year-old. Her mother, Nixzaliz, faces a separate murder trial.

The jury has sat through hours of disturbing testimony about how Rodriguez allegedly beat the sad-eyed girl, tied her to a chair and locked her in a room.

When Hall told the panel they were excused for the day, they burst into cheers and applause.

Their reprieve will be short-lived.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/01/24/2008-01-24_mystery_evidence_in_nixzmary_trial-1.html

[LiveLaughLuv]

I really don't care who they say struck the fatal blow, IMO, the step-father (which I don't think he was since no marriage took place) and the mother are just as culpible. Him for beating her and the mother for leaving her to die on that filty mattress.

Both responsible, both should get LWOP!

A videotape that's being called a confession brought high drama to a Brooklyn courtroom in the trial of the man accused of murdering Nixzmary Brown.

Cesar Santiago, 29, faces up to 25 years to life if convicted of beating the seven-year-old girl to death in Brooklyn in January.

The girl was apparently tied to a chair, tortured, sexually molested and starved for weeks before being killed by a blow to the head.


Wednesday, prosecutors showed a videotaped confession, taken shortly after his arrest.

Nixzmary's mother, 27-year-old Nixzaliz Santiago, couldn't bear to watch, as the tape showed Cesar talking about the death, and his role in it.

http://www.wnbc.com/news/10383150/detail.html


To the right towards mid page, there are links for Videos....

[Roamer]

I can't see why the tape would bother her so much, since she watched the abuse happen in person and did nothing to stop it. And maybe contributing to it.

They're both guilty, IMO. :mad:

[awakening2lite]

I can understand the jury having trouble holding back the tears. It's a tough to just read through all the articles posted without feeling sick or choked up.

How can human beings have so much rage?

I am glad they will be getting the harsher penalty just passed. It was meant for cases like this.

:1222423: In remembrance. A child who's plight only came to light in a courtroom. May she rest in peace.

[Sumanadevii]

Both parents need to be locked in jail for life without parole...never to see freedom again...I also question the neighbors...Where were they? How could they not hear the screams? HOW? I lived in a house of horrors ...the screaming and cries are deafening. It seems we can pass laws...but we can't make people care or become involved. Another child failed. How many before we make those laws count?

[LiveLaughLuv]

Both parents need to be locked in jail for life without parole...never to see freedom again...I also question the neighbors...Where were they? How could they not hear the screams? HOW? I lived in a house of horrors ...the screaming and cries are deafening. It seems we can pass laws...but we can't make people care or become involved. Another child failed. How many before we make those laws count?

IIRC, they did try and step in. Neighbors and school did make a report to CPS. Seems every time the CPS knocked they were not allowed in. Seems they should have gotten the police to kick the damn door down and investigate properly.

I get angry with this defense attorney. He is trying to make this POS out to be "father of the year" trying to toss the entire blame to mother. He is the most hated man in Brooklyn right now, oh wait, maybe that is his defense, to get the jurors to dispise him, this way he is guaranteed a verdict of guilty, sentence, LWOP! :zm10:

[Roamer]

I don't know that much about CPS rules, but wouldn't common sense tell anyone that if they aren't allowed in, it's because there's something to hide?
Couldn't they go back with a warrant or at least a police officer to demand that they be allowed in to check the children's welfare?

[LiveLaughLuv]

I don't know that much about CPS rules, but wouldn't common sense tell anyone that if they aren't allowed in, it's because there's something to hide?
Couldn't they go back with a warrant or at least a police officer to demand that they be allowed in to check the children's welfare?

Yes Roamer, I agree with you. They should've acted in a more timely manner. Seems school officials and neighbors voiced concerns.

Supervisors Are Suspended After Girl's Death

By LESLIE KAUFMAN and JIM RUTENBERG
Published: January 19, 2006

Six New York City child welfare workers were suspended or reassigned yesterday for their roles in the failed investigations leading up to the death of a 7-year-old girl in Brooklyn. The commissioner of children's services also announced a reorganization of his top aides aimed at improving the oversight of hundreds of frontline abuse investigators.

A gentle send-off was given for the hearse that carried the remains of Nixzmary Brown after her funeral Wednesday on the Lower East Side.
Commissioner John B. Mattingly, speaking at a news conference after a week of embarrassing disclosures about the city's Administration for Children's Services, said he was taking action against the six workers because they had failed to take "basic and important steps" in the investigation of complaints of abuse and neglect involving the girl, Nixzmary Brown.Prosecutors say the child was abused by both her parents over many months and was ultimately beaten to death by her stepfather last week, even though concerns about her safety were known to child welfare caseworkers, school personnel and the police.
More at the link!
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/19/nyregion/19child.html?ex=1295326800&amp;en=affdf1de18191993&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

[Roamer]

Now that you've posted it, I do remember reading about the suspensions or reassignments. I wonder what that really means, though. And whatever it is, their lack of action certainly contributed to the death of this poor little girl.

[awakening2lite]

The other children in this family are placed in care, are they getting any treatment? Imagine living as a child in that house. Being so young, they could become desensitized to the pain of others. Not, that I'm saying anything is bad or wrong with them. They are victims, too.

Is there any expectation they will be called as witnesses?

[2Hope4]

And Jesus weeped.


Oh how horrible. For some reason, I hadn't read about this case before. Now I sit here in total disbelief,and crying my heart out. Oh that dear child. The abuse she endured. Rest in peace dear one. You'll never know the pains of abuse again.

Reading that the other kids got toys for Christmas, and Nixzmary got nothing, just broke my heart. How can anyone be so cruel? How can single one child out, and beat them death, all the while loving on the others? This child did NOTHING to deserve this treatment!!! She didnt' ask to be born. She didn't get to chose her parents. Why oh dear Lord, WHY?!?!?!

And the grandmother... ughh! Turning her back on this precious child. Closing the only escape route the child had. Man. I bet Nixzmary felt as if noone loved her. Noone cared whether she lived or died. Oh precious Nixzmary, WE CARE! I'm just so saddened that we couldn't be there for you in life. Your voice won't go unheard hun.

[Pandabear]

I keep telling myself not to read this thread, but my heart just keeps drawing me back. LWOP is too good for this monster and too good for Nixzaliz Santiago also.

How could a mother sit by and watch a man beat her child over and over again? How could a mother beat a child that she gave birth to? If what they say is true and she was stealing food, what should that have told them? A 7 year old should never have to steal food. How could that woman have denied her child enough food to eat? My lord what that baby must have suffered.

Rest in peace sweet angel. :1222423:

[awakening2lite]

Maybe I missed it. What happened after the Jan 24th(?) closed door meeting where the jury was excused?

[Roamer]

I haven't seen anything since then, A2L.

[LiveLaughLuv]

Porn Comment Sparks Outrage At Nixzmary Brown Trial

POSTED: 3:56 pm EST February 6, 2008
UPDATED: 12:13 am EST February 7, 2008


NEW YORK -- A conflict between the defense and prosecution teams developed Wednesday in the case of Cesar Rodriguez, the man accused of killing stepdaughter Nixzmary Brown.

PDF: Transcript Of Wednesday's Debate Over Pornography
PDF: Cesar Rodriguez's Written Statements From Day His Daughter Was Found Dead

The dustup was triggered when prosecutors showed jurors Nixzmary's pink "Tinkerbell" school backpack at Brooklyn Supreme Court.


After the jury adjourned for lunch, defense attorney Jeffrey Schwartz objected to being "sandbagged" by the introduction of the backpack, which he said should have been shown to the defense months ago.

The claim led prosecutor Ama Dwimoh to wave a manila envelope and respond, "If he wants to talk about sandbag, the papers that I have here are, is just pornography that was found all throughout the apartment."

Schwartz snapped back.

"Judge, when last I checked, pornography is not a crime,” the defense attorney said.

“No one is saying it is a crime,” Dwimoh said.

“Maybe the DA has some in her apartment,” Schwartz said.

“Excuse me?” the prosecutor responded.

Judge L. Priscilla Hall then retook control of the courtroom.

“Counsel, you are out of order,” she said to Schwartz.

“How dare you?” continued the prosecutor.

“I understand that this is a stressful situation, and I understand that both parties are under stress with regard to this trial," said Hall. "But I do not, and will not, accept improper behavior, especially not in the courtroom and on the record. Now the court will take whatever steps it deems appropriate with regard to remarks that are inappropriate, but you are to behave yourselves as professionals, as I believe you to be. ... Your professional courtesy that you owe each other is required.”

“Your honor, I understand you admonishing both the defense attorney and myself, the prosecution and defense, in terms of proper behavior," Dwimoh said. "But I take issue with any officer of the court, any officer of the court to sit in a public courtroom and make that kind of statement against me ... and we may not get along and we may argue, but never has such a thing been said,” Dwimoh said. “Especially in light of, if you were to see this material.”

http://www.wnbc.com/news/15236415/detail.html

[Roamer]

Oh, my. What a low blow by the defense. Probably because his client has no defense for what they did to this baby!

[Hope]

Child pornography is illegal. I wonder if that is what was inside the envelope.

Defense attorneys make me ill anymore.

Justice for Nixzmary.

[KittyMom]

I just can't follow this trial. I can't stand hearing the h3ll this baby went through during her short life. It breaks my heart to think that anyone could be so cruel AND that a man would stand up and defend this piece of carp. How does this lawyer sleep at night???

:1222423: For Nixzmary...I'm so sorry.

[KittyMom]

Maybe ya'll remember this from Marcus Fiesel's case. It sure suits Nixzmary's case.

http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q311/KittyMom5/ctv/021807_borgman_600x392.jpg

[LiveLaughLuv]

Brooklyn

Prosecutors Cross-Examine Pathologist In Nixzmary Brown Trial

February 26, 2008

Prosecutors in the Cesar Rodriguez murder trial Tuesday challenged a key defense witness who maintains 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown did not die as a result of Child Abuse Syndrome.

Forensic pathologist Dr. Charles Wetli was back on the stand for cross-examination.

As part of the prosecution's case, the jury had already heard Rodriguez' admission that he bound and beat his stepdaughter Nixzmary Brown consistently. This time the video was played for the Wetli, who Monday testified that Nixzmary did not die of Child Abuse Syndrome but simply a blow to the head.

Prosecutors say Wetli was not in a position to testify about her cause of death without reviewing Rodriguez' statements, which say that he was in the apartment when Nixzmary died.

"What Cesar said he did is all consistent with the medical findings at autopsy," said Brooklyn Assistant District Attorney Ama Dwimoh.

However, the defense argued Rodriguez' statement is misleading and not forensic evidence. They say the prosecutor played the video for emotional effect.

"She fell back on her lifesaver, which is the picture parade, by showing pictures and once again inflaming the passions of the jury -- to get them to look away from the evidence and look at the sympathetic point of the case," said defense attorney Jeffrey Schwartz.

Prosecutors also got Wetli to testify that with prompt medical attention, Nixzmary could have been saved, that she was underweight, and that some of her bruises were old and some new.

"He has no problem, Dr. Wetli, stating that Nixzmary was in fact a victim of child abuse," said Dwimoh. "He had no problem talking about how she was medically compromised."

Nonetheless, prosecutors could not get Wetli to say Nixzmary died of Child Abuse Syndrome. The defense maintains it was Nixzmary's mother Nixzaliz Santiago who dealt the fatal blow. She faces a separate trial.

Meanwhile, the defense also called a pediatrician to the stand who testified that when he examined Nixzmary months before she died, she was skinny but not malnourished. When prosecutors then showed him autopsy pictures, he said she looked emaciated.

Defense attorneys hope to wrap up their case by the end of the week. They plan on calling Administration for Children's Services workers to the stand, as well as Nixzaliz Santiago's mother.
http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=9&aid=78832

There was to be some jailhouse snitch to say that Nixalize told her she killed her daughter.

As far as I am concerned, they both did. Does it really matter who struck the final blow? They left her on that dirty mattress to die, never, ever attempted to get that child help. How can a mother allow this to happen? When you think about it, she is responsible. I think they should both die for what they did.

After this case, a new law is in place.

If a child is abused/neglected/tortured and the final result is death, you can be given the death penalty. Rightly so. I can't imagine how somone can intentionally harm an innocent child. Remember, they did not ask to be born. If you are so blessed to have a child, that child should be treated tenderly, with lots of TLC.



Snitch claims Nixzmary Brown's mother confessed to killing daughter
By SCOTT SHIFREL
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Monday, March 3rd 2008, 4:00 AM

A jailhouse snitch who claims Nixzmary Brown's mother confessed to killing the girl has a secret diary to bolster her testimony, the Daily News has learned.

Prosecutors have dismissed the informant as unreliable, but defense lawyers for the girl's stepfather want her to take the stand and have jurors see parts of her journal, sources said.

Because of "safety issues," Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Hall has barred both prosecutors and defense lawyers from discussing the witness.

The News has learned the snitch, who pins the blame on mom Nixzaliz Santiago, is an alleged con artist who is no longer behind bars and helping investigators in an unrelated case.

"There is a secret witness and a secret diary," a source said. "But lives are at stake here."

The undated journal is a collection of dozens of pages of handwritten notes that the mystery witness claims she took during her time in jail, according to the sources. If she takes the stand and the jury finds her credible, her testimony could be a boon to Nixzmary's stepdad, Cesar Rodriguez, who is on trial for murdering the child Jan. 11, 2006.

Rodriguez, 29, has admitted beating the 7-year-old, but his lawyers contend it was Nixzmary's mother, who faces a separate trial, who delivered the death blow. Despite the gag order, Rodriguez's lawyer once gave an apparent preview of the witness' claims - telling reporters outside the courtroom that Santiago admitted "smashing [Nixzmary's] head repeatedly into the bathtub until the child was lifeless."

"Those are her words, not mine," defense lawyer Jeffrey Schwartz added, refusing to say where he learned of the purported confession.

Even before taking the stand, the mystery witness caused an uproar at the emotional trial. Defense lawyers were furious that prosecutors didn't disclose her existence until two weeks after opening arguments last month.

Both sides met with the judge in a series of closed-door hearings that bogged down the trial in an effort to protect the identity of the witness.

Hall eventually ruled that if the woman testifies, she could do so in a closed courtroom for safety reasons - presumably connected to her continuing work as a government informant.

Despite pressure from media lawyers, Hall has stood firm on her closed-courtroom ruling but agreed this week to release edited transcripts of the witness' testimony without her name. sshifrel@nydailynews.com
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/03/03/2008-03-03_snitch_claims_nixzmary_browns_mother_con.html

This Welti person really needs their heads examined. How can he sit there and say this child did not die from child abuse syndrome....are we looking at the same case?

[LiveLaughLuv]

Suffolk County Chief Forensic Pathologist Charles Wetli (center) testifies at the trial of Cesar Rodriguez (left). At right, prosecutor Ama Dwimoh.

Prosecutors in the Nixzmary Brown trial hinted Tuesday at bombshell evidence that the little girl was molested.

Assistant District Attorney Ama Dwimoh grilled a defense forensic expert about his statement that there were no signs of sexual abuse on the slain 7-year-old's body.

In graphic terms, she asked him whether there would be any signs if Nixzmary had been forced to fondle or perform oral sex on a man.

The question was intriguing since prosecutors long ago dropped a sex abuse charge against the second-grader's stepdad, Cesar Rodriguez.

Dwimoh said prosecutors pulled the charge "because we didn't want to call the children to the stand."

None of the witnesses who have testified in the month-long trial said Nixzmary's horrific life of beatings and whippings also included sexual violation.

The defense still has several witnesses to bring to the stand - including a jailhouse snitch who will be allowed to testify in a closed courtroom for safety reasons.

That informant claims Nixzmary's mom, Nixzaliz Santiago, admitted she delivered the vicious head blow that ultimately killed the girl, the Daily News has learned.

It's unclear if the witness also claims to have information about sexual crimes against Nixzmary.

Prosecutors are trying to prove Nixzmary died of "child abuse syndrome" after a series of beatings at the hands of Rodriguez.

The girl's pediatrician testified yesterday he saw no signs of child abuse in May 2005, nine months before her death.

Dr. Jose Simpao acknowledged Nixzmary was skinny, in the bottom 5% for weight for a child her age.

Her mother attributed that to a "short father," and the girl had gained half a pound when she returned for a followup, he said.

Shown a crime scene picture of Nixzmary - with blackened eyes and jutting shoulder bones - he blanched, bit his lip and grimaced.

"She looks emaciated," he testified.

After court, Simpao said it was "very hard" to look at the photos.

"I'm a human being. I have feelings," he said. "What happened to her - it's hard to imagine."

He said that after Nixzmary was killed, his secretary told him about it and he instantly remembered the "happy" child.

"Of course, we always think, if I knew then what I know now," he said. "But who can tell the future?"

tconnor@nydailynews.com
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/02/27/2008-02-27_trial_rocked_by_hint_nixzmary_was_victim.html

[Roamer]

ITA that both of them are guilty, and this guy doesn't know what he's talking about. There is no excuse for this type of torture and abuse. None.

I just could not be a defense attorney, specifically in cases like this.

[LiveLaughLuv]

Jailhouse snitch says Nixzmary mom caught girl, pa having sex
BY SCOTT SHIFREL and TRACY CONNOR
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Saturday, March 8th 2008, 4:00 AM

Maria Gonzalez, grandmother of 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown, outside Brooklyn Supreme Court after testifying in the murder trial of Nixzmary's stepfather, Cesar Rodriguez.

Gonzalez on the witness stand as Rodriguez (l.) and Assistant District Attorney Ama Dwimoh look on.

Nixzmary Brown's mom admitted she helped kill the second-grader because she caught her husband sexually abusing her, a jailhouse snitch said in bombshell testimony.

"She was angry at her child because she was having oral sex with her husband," the informant testified behind closed doors, under a cloak of anonymity.

The secret witness took the stand Wednesday but her monstrous allegation wasn't revealed until Friday.

The con woman - who has pleaded guilty to stealing $2 million - was called by Cesar Rodriguez's lawyer, but her testimony appears to be disastrous for his case.

She said the mom, Nixzaliz Santiago, clearly implicated Rodriguez in the Jan. 11, 2006, child abuse slaying.

Then she painted Rodriguez as a pedophile who not only whipped, beat and tied up the 7-year-old but also used her as a sexual plaything.

The witness kept a jailhouse diary in which she wrote that Santiago complained of reliving the murder in her dreams.

"She kept having a dream of that night when they had her in the bathtub and they were banging her head in the tub," the witness said.

"She dreamt that they were beating the child in the bathtub, that they were using her fists to beat her up and [Cesar] walked away and she stayed ... keeps going and Nixzmary became lifeless."

Defense lawyer Jeffrey Schwartz asked if Santiago told the witness what she was thinking as she battered the child.

"She wanted to hurt her because she caught her with her husband several times having oral sex," she said, adding the mom said Nixzmary was so "evil" she nicknamed her "Diablo."

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/03/08/2008-03-08_jailhouse_snitch_says_nixzmary_mom_caugh.html


I just love it when a plan comes together....

The defense attorney wanted this witness to testify on behalf of his client. Now, the jailhouse snitch, IMO, has just put the nails in this POS's coffin, along with her mother.

Nixzaliz Santiago, the childs biological mother, was angry at her child for having oral sex with her husband, several times. So, instead of seeing it was the step-father who initiated this oral sex, the one who exploits her child, she blames her child for it. She doesn't see her husband as the one who exploited her child.

What is wrong with this woman. I disliked her before, I can say now, without a doubt, I hate this woman for what happened to that precious child. I do hope they keep her in protective custody, for someone will surely give her a dose of what she gave to that beautiful child.

I also think after this explosive testimony, they should just plead guilty and do their time.

I do hope in time, we will hear of these two being killed in prison. It's what they deserve! :mad:

[Roamer]

Oh, dear God, can this get any worse? She was angry at a baby for doing what the POS made her do????

[LiveLaughLuv]

Oh, dear God, can this get any worse? She was angry at a baby for doing what the POS made her do????

This woman does not deserve the honor of being called a mother.

How in the world do you justify or rationalize that this was the childs fault. She even went as far as nicknaming her the devil for having oral sex with her step father. Where the hell are her brains????

Oh, it just angers the hell out of me. I would love to have just 15 minutes with both of these knuckleheads. What they did over several years to that child, I would accomplish in that fifteen minutes.....:mad:

My heart bleeds for Nixzmary.

I am so sorry she had to endure this torture. :1187603408.CR.Mothe

[LiveLaughLuv]

Jury Deliberations Continue In Nixzmary Murder Trial

March 17, 2008

A jury resumed deliberations today to decide the fate of Cesar Rodriguez, who is charged with murdering his seven-year-old stepdaughter, Nixzmary Brown.

Nixzmary was killed two years ago after what prosecutors say was a long pattern of abuse.

But his attorney says while Rodriguez did beat the child, her mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, delivered the fatal blow. Santiago is being tried for murder separately later this year.

The jury deliberated for two days last week.

Rodriguez faces up to life in prison if convicted
http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=1&aid=79483

[LiveLaughLuv]

Judge: Expect mom's trial by June in NYC child-death case
March 27, 2008
NEW YORK - A judge is aiming for a trial within three months for a Brooklyn mother accused of beating her starving, abused 7-year-old daughter to death in a case that spurred public outrage and child-welfare reforms.

Nixzaliz Santiago faces a murder charge in Nixzmary Brown's January 2006 death. The child's stepfather, Cesar Rodriguez, was convicted last week of manslaughter. He was acquitted of murder.

His lawyer said Santiago was the killer and described her as "demented."

Santiago's lawyer, Sammy Sanchez, says other inmates spit on his client and called her a "baby killer" as she rode to court for a hearing Wednesday. At the hearing, state Supreme Court Judge Patricia DiMango said she wanted Santiago's trial to start in May or June.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--childdeathtrial0327mar27,0,1947872.story

I guess this will help to know how Nixaliz is being treated by her fellow inmates.

Karma kicks, what comes around goes around. Prisoners hate those who hurt children. She is getting a little taste of what her precious child had to endure for her short little life.

[Roamer]

I doubt anything they do to her will equal the torture she (they) put upon this helpless, starving little girl. :mad:

What's the max she can get in New York on a murder charge?

[LiveLaughLuv]

I doubt anything they do to her will equal the torture she (they) put upon this helpless, starving little girl. :mad:

What's the max she can get in New York on a murder charge?

I'm sure there trying for LWOP, especially since the step father got off with a manslaughter conviction.

IMO, they both should have received LWOP.

I remember hearing DA Hynes wanting to get a law passed if a child is abused/tortured which results in the child's death, he wants a LWOP sentence. Hopefully, Nizaliz will get what she deserves. She was ultimately responsible for keeping her daughter safe from harm. Instead she sees her daughter as the devil especially since she allegedly saw the oral sex take place a few times. She blames the child instead of step dad....I just don't get how some woman think!

I found this link that you can hear DA Hynes submit his proposal for LWOP and name it Nixzmary's Law....You can either download it or listen....

http://northcountrypublicradio.net/news/archive.php?id=6808

[Roamer]

Thanks for the link.

I agree, they should have both gotten LWOP. I don't think the jury is going to have any sympathy for mommy dearest.

[LiveLaughLuv]

Date: 02/27/2007
Office: Bruno
Title: SENATE PASSES NIXZMARY’S LAW

SENATE PASSES NIXZMARY’S LAW
Legislation Would Require Life Without Parole for Murder of a Child

In a continuing effort to protect New York’s innocent children from being victims of violent child abusers, the New York State Senate will passed “Nixzmary’s Law,” a bill that would require a sentence of life without parole for parents or guardians who kill a child. The legislation is sponsored by Senator Mary Lou Rath (R-C-I, Williamsville) and Senator Serphin Maltese (R-C-I, Queens), along with Senator Martin Golden (R-C, Brooklyn) and Senator Frank Padavan (R-C, Bellerose).

The bill (S.675A) is named after Nixzmary Brown, a seven-year-old Brooklyn girl who was brutally beaten and left for dead last year. Her mother and stepfather were charged with her murder. This legislation would create the crime of aggravated murder of a child and mandate a sentence of life without parole for the parent, guardian or other person in a position of trust, who abuses and tortures a child under the age of 14, causing the death of the child or intentionally causes the death of a child.
“Everyone in the State was shocked and horrified by the brutal, tragic death of Nixzmary Brown,” Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno said. “This bill would close a loophole that allows violent child abusers to escape life without parole when they cause the death of a child. In Nixzmary’s case, the murderers could be eligible for parole after serving only 15 years in prison. This bill recognizes that the crimes committed against Nixzmary were so atrocious and depraved that the killers should never be allowed out of prison.”

“It is critical that we reexamine the systems that are designed to protect our children as we know the systems are not perfect,” Senator Rath said. “We need to do everything we can to prevent children from potential harm and young Nixzmary’s death illustrates the need to close the loophole that permitted this horrendous crime from occurring.”
http://www.senate.state.ny.us/pressreleases.nsf/2e0e86fa9105ed5a85256ec30061c0be/7b6ed54760f66f828525728f0073d300?OpenDocument

[Roamer]

Good for New York!!

I hope other states will follow their example!

[LiveLaughLuv]

Tomorrow is sentencing day for Cesar Rodriquez.

All we can hope for is the maximum sentence to be imposed, 29 years. :innocent0001:

Nixzmary judge must now see that justice is a maximum sentence
By JANE RIDLEY
DAILY NEWS COLUMNIST

Wednesday, March 19th 2008, 4:00 AM

Moments after letting Nixzmary Brown's stepfather get off on a murder charge, one of his jurors called the panel's verdict of first-degree manslaughter "a compromise."

How shameful.

Many saw these jurors as the people who would finally bring justice for Nixzmary.

Instead, they brought injustice.

How tragic.

After eight weeks of heartbreaking but conclusive testimony that had them in tears, they managed to once again disrespect the little girl whose painfully short life was characterized only by torture, misery and despair.

Barely alive, this 7-year-old child suffered unimaginable torment at the hands of the two "responsible" adults who were supposed to protect her from harm.

In death, lying cold and alone in her white lace dress in Brooklyn's Cypress Hills Cemetery, Nixzmary Brown has again been deprived of the dignity she deserves.

How could the jurors not interpret Cesar Rodriguez's behavior - pulverizing his stepdaughter with his fists, whipping her, starving her, banging her skull so hard it caused a massive head injury and waiting hours before calling 911 - as "depraved indifference to human life?"

That his deeds reflected a "wicked, evil or inhuman state of mind," as manifested by "brutal, heinous and despicable acts," is, to me at least, a no-brainer.

Also in line with the count of second-degree murder, he is as much to blame as someone who intentionally killed his victim.

She was little more than a tiny, fragile baby, but he made no concession.

Squared against this broad-shouldered, hot-tempered bully with his deadly arsenal of right and left hooks, duct tape, bungee cords and belts, she didn't stand a chance.

The conviction on a lesser count means Rodriguez could be released in time to cash his Social Security checks. I shudder to think he may be young enough to father another child - or even to meet any grandkids by his two biological sons, both toddlers named Cesar.

Those of us who were not the decision makers during the 16 hours of deliberations must now look to Judge Priscilla Hall to make amends.

If this apparently wise, compassionate woman does not impose the maximum 29-year jail term on Rodriguez when she sentences him in two weeks, Nixzmary will forever be cheated of justice.

A lesser sentence will have let her down just like her so-called "family," school, hospital and the social workers originally assigned to her case.


http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/03/19/2008-03-19_nixzmary_judge_must_now_see_that_justice.html

[Roamer]

Let's all hope the judge sees through this ridiculous bleeding hearts jury. Too bad their hearts didn't bleed for the only victim in this case, the precious little girl who was tortured and murdered.

[LiveLaughLuv]

Let's all hope the judge sees through this ridiculous bleeding hearts jury. Too bad their hearts didn't bleed for the only victim in this case, the precious little girl who was tortured and murdered.

I agree, Roamer.

We still have mommy dearest's trial which begins in June. Could be her fate to get LWOP, at least I hope so.....

I also wish they'd call me to sit on that jury. I definately would convict on Murder 1....I hope whoever sits on that jury will see her for what she is. She gave birth to Nixzmary, she should have protected her and not went along with daddy dearest and beat, starve and torture that poor child. She is the one who blamed her daughter for the sexual abuse, as if that child caused her common law husband to turn to her for oral sex. What in the world is wrong with this picture? She referred to her precious child as the devil, when they were....I guess they couldn't prove the sexual abuse being only hearsay. I think this will come out in Nixzaliz's trial, but sad that nothing can be done on that count.

I would love just fifteen minutes with them both.....:mad:

I cried so hard for Nixzmary when this first was told. I still cry today because true justice was not done for Nixzmary....:1187603408.CR.Mothe

[Roamer]

This sweet little girl touched many of our hearts. :1187603408.CR.Mothe

[gramvof14]

This sweet little girl touched many of our hearts. :1187603408.CR.Mothe
I will never understand jurors anymore, if they can't convict first degree murder when it is a little child that has been treated so horrendous over her short lifetime then what hope do we have that our justice system is working.I am so discussed with this jury where was their common sence and their compassion. I hope Nixzmary's stepfather and so called mother ROT IN HELL.

RIP Nixzmary:1222423::1222423:

[Hope]

What an injustice to Nixzmary.