Opening Statements Begin in Nixzmary Brown Case
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A battered 7-year-old who was tied to a chair, forced to use a cat-litter box, and punished by being held under cold water died in a “prison” of “systematic torture and abuse,” a prosecutor said yesterday at the opening of her stepfather’s murder trial.
The death two years ago of Nixzmary Brown shocked the city, hastened child welfare reforms and made her name synonymous with child abuse.
“It was inevitable her life would end the way it did: battered and beaten, left alone on the floor, moaning until she could no longer hold onto life,” an assistant district attorney, Ama Dwimoh, told jurors.
Ms. Dwimoh told jurors that Cesar Rodriguez, 29, beat his stepdaughter and dunked her in cold water after accusing her of stealing a cup of yogurt.
Before that, Nixzmary was confined to a room with dirty mattresses, a broken radiator, an old wooden school chair with a rope, and the litter box.
The victim was “routinely tied to the chair. She was repeatedly beaten with a belt and fists — his fists,” Ms. Dwimoh said, pointing to the defendant.
“That little girl had no choice but to defecate in that litter box. … That was her prison the defendant created for her.”
Mr. Rodriguez’s lawyer, Jeffrey Schwartz, said his client was a loving family man, that Nixzmary’s mother was “deeply, deeply disturbed,” and that the little girl herself was troubled. He said the girl bullied her siblings, ages 6 months to 9 years, by cutting, hitting, and throwing things at them, and even took their food.
“Yeah, he did tie her up,” Mr. Schwartz said of Mr. Rodriguez. But “the bottom line is that nothing he did threatened the life of Nixzmary Brown.”
Mr. Schwartz, has sought to blame Nixzmary’s mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, who faces a separate trial, for fostering an environment of abuse and the overburdened city Administration for Children’s Services for doing too little to stop it. During jury selection, Mr. Schwartz signaled he also plans to explore the dilemma of how best to discipline children. Mr. Schwartz said outside court yesterday that his client is guilty only of being “a strict disciplinarian” and reiterated claims that the mother was responsible.
