Mar 12, 2008 2:34 pm US/Eastern
Defense Lawyer Accuses Mother In Death Of Nixzmary
Investigators Instead Frame Stepfather In Notorious Torture Death
NEW YORK (CBS/AP) ―
Ignoring evidence against the "demented" mother, investigators instead framed the stepfather in the notorious torture and beating death of Nixzmary Brown, a defense lawyer said Wednesday in closing arguments of the man's murder trial.
The mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, "is the one who killed her daughter," Jeffrey Schwartz said at the trial in Queens.
Schwartz asked the jury of two men and 10 women to focus on the testimony of a jailhouse snitch, who claimed that behind bars Santiago admitted being haunted by the 7-year-old's death and described delivering the fatal blow.
It was "the confession of the sick, of the demented, of the disturbed mother," said Schwartz, referring to Santiago as "Mommy Dearest." The mother is awaiting a separate trial later this year.
Prosecutors were to give their closing argument later Wednesday, with deliberations expected to begin sometime Thursday.
Cesar Rodriguez, 29, has pleaded not guilty to charges he killed Nixzmary on Jan. 11, 2006, with a blow to the head while punishing the starving child for stealing yogurt and tampering with a computer printer.
Authorities say the victim had been routinely bound to a small chair, beaten with a belt and forced to use a cat litter box as a toilet -- allegations that shocked the city and hastened child welfare reforms.
The prosecution's case relied heavily on a taped interview of Rodriguez saying that on Nixzmary's last night, he stuck her head under running bath water "to make her think." Investigators suspect the girl's head was smashed against the faucet -- something her stepfather denied doing.
In the same tape the father conceded, "Sometimes she'd get me real angry, and I used to just throw her on the floor. ... She was always lying to me about everything."
Rodriguez "is guilty of child abuse," Schwartz said Wednesday. But the lawyer added: "You have not seen evidence in this courtroom that has proven murder or manslaughter charges."
(© 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 This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.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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