Jan 18, 2008 7:09 pm US/Eastern
Fetus In Jar Found In Home Of Nixzmary Brown
Stepfather Claims Mother Of Tortured 7-Year-Old Prayed To Jar Often
Reporting
Lou Young
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Authorities say Nixzmary Brown, who died on Jan. 11, 2006, was bound with tape, tethered to a chair and forced to use a cat litter box.
AP
The death of 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown has been billed a horrific injustice, but on Friday, investigators revealed frightening details of a disturbing finding inside the Brooklyn apartment where the girl was found dead two years ago.
According to detective Joseph Bello, who testified during the murder trial of Nixzmary's stepfather Cesar Rodriguez, the young girl lived in a house of horrors. That's because while scouring for evidence inside the apartment, Bello found sitting atop a bedroom dresser a jar containing a brown liquid and a fetus.
Rodriguez's attorney Jeffrey Schwartz called the gruesome discovery a "bombshell" -- a motive for Nixzmary's mother committing the murder. Schwartz said the mother cried at and prayed over the jar, proving she'd become demented and that she had killed Nixzmary, not his client.
On cross-examination, Bello was asked to describe a crime scene photo from the family's three-bedroom apartment of the master bedroom dresser, which was covered with lotion bottles, stereo speakers and other items. Among them was a jar containing the murky, brownish substance.
"It was explained to me that it was a fetus," the NYPD investigator told the jury of 10 women and two men.
Schwartz repeated the defense claim that Nixzmary was an unruly eldest child who disrupted the household, and said her "demented" mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, "blamed Nixzmary for the death of her (unborn) child."
Assistant District Attorney Ama Dwimoh played down the jar evidence, saying it did nothing to clear Cesar Rodriguez. She reminded reporters that the mother also was facing murder charges in a separate trial based on the theory that the couple killed the girl "working together as a team."
Authorities say Nixzmary, who died on Jan. 11, 2006, was bound with tape, tethered to a chair and forced to use a cat litter box -- a case that shocked the city and prompted child welfare reforms.
Rodriguez, 29, has pleaded not guilty to charges he killed the malnourished child with a blow to the head while punishing her for stealing yogurt by dunking her under cold water. If convicted, he faces 25 years to life in prison.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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