Sep 14, 2008 3:41 pm US/Eastern
Trial For Nixzmary Brown's Mother To Begin Monday
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Nixzmary Brown was found dead on Jan. 11, 2006 inside her Brooklyn apartment.
AP
The Brooklyn DA is getting ready for a second trial in the death of 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown. The case against her mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, is scheduled to begin Monday.
Prosecutors said she allowed her husband, Cesar Rodriguez, to beat his step daughter.
Questions were raised by one of the jurors in a sealed
affidavit about the proceedings and deliberations of the Rodriguez trial, and also about the level of blame the mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, deserves for
Nixzmary's death.
Documents that allege she tried to pin the whole
thing on her husband were introduced late in the trial. That is the
basis of the appeal.
Santiago will be tried separately. Rodriguez will be on his way to an upstate prison soon. He was convicted of manslaughter and will serve between 26 and 29 years in prison.
"I'm just sorry for causing everyone emotional pain, distorting the memories of a child," he said. "I will do the sentence the court decides. I'm not mad at anybody. If I get enough life to show the court how you did me, I wish to do that.
"He's behind bars. He's going to pay for what he did," child advocate Awilda Cordero said. "And his remarks saying that he's sorry … I'm sorry, I don't think he's sorry. During the whole trial he saw pictures. He never glanced, he never did a tear. Nothing about any sorry-ness about him."
The defense says it will appeal, claiming Rodriguez was the victim of emotion and prejudice.
"We compare this to a lynching like in an old cowboy movie," lawyer Jeff Schwartz said. "And at this point the public, like in a lynching, feels satisfied with the result. And everyone is all happy about it, feels good about it, but just like in the movies we're confident that people are going to go home and reflect upon this. They are going to think upon this and then realize that the proceeding was tainted and was not fair."
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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