The Brooklyn DA's office played a videotaped interview with the mother on trial of killing her abused daughter, saying the video implicated her in the death. Nixzaliz Santiago spoke to police and prosecutors after her 7-year-old daughter Nixzmary Brown was found dead in January 2006, saying that she didn't "call for help because Nixzmary"--who was brutally beaten by Santiago's husband--was "moaning, breathing." Prosecutors, who say that Santiago's inaction led to the child's death, pointed to......

Yesterday, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Patricia DiMango stopped the Nixzmary Brown murder trial to question a juror. A letter suggested the 35-year-old male schoolteacher indicated he could not be fair during jury selection by raising his hand, but "the judge and the lawyers did not notice," according to the Daily News. However, the juror said he could be fair in the emotional trial, where Nixzaliz Santiago is accused of murdering her 7-year-old daughter. Earlier this......

Prosecutor Ama Dwimoh told jurors what 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown's final words were, "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy" "after being beaten, battered, broken and thrown naked onto a cold wooden floor." Brown's mother Nixzaliz Santiago is on trial for the girl's murder, as the Brooklyn DA's office contends Santiago did nothing to prevent her husband Cesar Rodriguez from delivering a fatal beating in January 2006. Dwimoh added, "She left her to die. Nixzaliz Santiago simply did not care."......

Jurors were warned by prosecutors that the trial would be "emotional" as jury selection began in for a second trial related to 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown's death. This time, the child's mother Nixzaliz Santiago faces murder charges. Nixzmary was killed in January 2006, after being beaten by her stepfather Cesar Rodriguez for apparently taking some yogurt (or pudding) without permission. She spent her final hours beaten and having her head hit against the bathtub faucet and......

After a jury found her stepfather guilty of manslaughter, the Brooklyn DA's office is readying for a second trial in the death of 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown. This time, her mother Nixzaliz Santiago will be in court, and the Daily News reports reports prosecutors may suggest Santiago was "jealous because she believed her husband having sex with the 7-year-old" and therefore allowed her daughter to be tortured. A prosecutor said, "Motive is always relevant. If she......

A month after a jury found Cesar Rodriguez guilty of manslaughter in the brutal death of his 7-year-old stepdaughter NIxzmary Brown, a judge sentenced him to the maximum allowed, 26 /12 years to 29 years in jail. He told the court, "I loved Nixzmary...I can honestly say that I’m being accused of something I did not do...but I will take responsibility." Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Hall had to scold courtroom spectators who cheered after......

Jurors in the harrowing Nixzmary Brown trial say they were divided over handing down a murder verdict, so instead they found Cesar Rodriguez guilty of first-degree manslaughter, as well as "endangering the welfare of the child and criminal possession of a weapon, including a belt used to beat Nixzmary." The Brooklyn DA's office argued 29-year-old Rodriguez's abusive actions amounted to second-degree murder in the death of his 7-year-old stepdaughter, but one juror told the Daily......

The jury deciding the fate of Cesar Rodriguez, accused of brutally killing his stepdaughter, had completed its third day of deliberations without a verdict yesterday, but this morning they have announced they have a decision. The AP reports they have found Rodriguez guilty of first-degree manslaughter; he will face up to 28 years in prison. Prosecutors had argued that 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown died at the hands of Rodriguez and her mother Nixzaliz Santiago (Santiago will......

The jury deliberating whether Cesar Rodriguez is guilty of killing his 7-year-old stepdaughter is reportedly close to a verdict. Even though the jury is on a break for the weekend, the Daily News suggests the jury's behavior indicates a verdict is near. The jurors endured 10 weeks of details about the short, horrific life Nixzmary Brown endured under her mother Nixzaliz Santiago and Rodriguez. The pair are being tried separately, and Rodriguez's defense is that......

A heretofore secret witness--previously described as a jailhouse snitch--testified in the murder trial of Cesar Rodriguez, charged with killing his 7-year-old stepdaughter Nixzmary Brown in 2006. The witness claimed the girl's mother confessed to killing her daughter. Nixzaliz Santiago, Nixzmary's mother who will face her own murder trial later, allegedly told the witness that Nixzmary was a bad child and she and Rodriguez beat the young girl in the bathtub. She testified that Santiago "kept......

The maternal grandmother of a 7-year-old abused girl who died in 2006 testified yesterday the child feared her stepfather. Her stepfather, Cesar Rodriguez, is on trial for Nixzmary Brown's murder; Brown's mother Nixzaliz Santiago will face a separate trial. The defense called Maria Gonzalez to support their claims a depressed Santiago struck the fatal blow. But Gonzalez, who only appeared because she was subpoenaed, said Brown and her siblings were scared of Rodriguez, "They had......

During his testimony for the defense, a former Suffolk County medical examiner said 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown was not killed by child abuse syndrome but by a single blow. In spite of her malnourished state and various injuries battering her body, Dr. Charles Wetli said, "If you take away the head injury from this child, there is no reason that the child should have died in that time and place." The NYC Medical Examiner's office said......

The defense for the man on trial for murdering his 7-year-old stepdaughter Nixzmary Brown opened its case by presenting a DNA expert. The Daily News says Dr. Lawrence Koblinsky, who teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, "attacked the investigation but seemed to bore jurors." Cesar Rodriguez, accused of killing the little girl in January of 2006, has admitted to savagely beating Nixzmary, tying her to a chair, and more, but his defense has......

A city medical examiner spent two days testifying in the trial of Cesar Rodriguez, who face murder charges over his 7-year-old stepdaughter Nixzmary Brown's death. Deputy Medical Examiner Dr. Barbara Sampson revealed two things: That the girl only gained one pound in two and a half years and that she was dead for seven hours before 911 was called. The Brooklyn DA's office has been trying to prove Rodriguez's actions led to the child's death.......

Photographs of a 7-year-old girl's battered body moved jurors in the Nixzmary Brown murder trial to tears yesterday. The prosecution showed crime scene photographs, featuring Nixzmary's dead body. The girl's stepfather Cesar Rodriguez is on trial for second-degree murder. Newsday thought it sounded like someone exclaimed "Jesus!" after seeing the pictures; other jurors covered their mouths. And with good reason: One of the pictures "showed bruised and scratched buttocks of the child with a spot......

After almost a week of delays, jurors were back in court for the Nixzmary Brown murder case. A expert said that the malnourished 7-year-old's blood was found under the fingernails Brown's stepfather, Cesar Rodriguez, as well as on his jeans. Rodriguez faces murder charges for the malnourished 7-year-old's 2006 death. Rodriguez's defense lawyers said the blood was present because he had tried to save her after the girl's mother beat her to death, noting the......

The Nixzmary Brown murder trial took an interesting turn yesterday when the defense lawyer for Cesar Rodriguez entered a photograph of a mug into evidence. Rodriguez is on trial for second-degree murder of his 7-year-old stepdaughter Nixzmary Brown. Though Rodriguez has admitted to beating her the night she died, lawyer Jeffrey Schwartz has been trying to argue that Brown's death was directly caused by her mother and not Rodriguez. Schwartz questioned a detective about a......

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, 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......

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 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......

The death of 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown shocked the city in January of last year. The child was beaten to death in her family's Brooklyn apartment and a history of abuse, including being tied up to a chair and showing up to school with bruises (when she would appear in school on rare occasions), had been noted by the Administration for Children's Services who seemingly did nothing to intervene. Her mother Nixzaliz Santiago and stepfather Cesar......

They say New York is home to a million stories, and so far this year, we've published 7021 of them here on Gothamist. So in case you missed any of those, let's take a little stroll back in time, and review the most significant stories the past 12 months, shall we? Here's part one of a semi-chronological look at 2006; part two will go up tomorrow: Nixzmary Brown and the Problem with the Administration for......

Yesterday, there was a pre-trial hearing to determine whether a confession tape from Nixzaliz Santiago about the death of her 7 year old daughter Nixzmary Brown would be allowed. Santiago and her husband Cesar Rodriguez are accused of starving, beating and badly torturing Brown, who died in January. But before as lawyers were arguing about tape, Santiago surprised her lawyer with a letter, which stated that she wanted to remove him as her counsel. Santiago......

Maria Gonzalez, the grandmother of Nixzmary Brown, the Brooklyn girl's who died under the care - and abuse - of her parents, will sue the city over its "carelessness, recklessness, gross negligence, wanton disregard and willful misconduct." The Administration for Children's Services were alerted to signs of abuse by Brown's teachers, but did act as urgently as they should have. The Daily News says Gonzalez's planned $150 million is but one of three lawsuits so......

The stepfather of Nixzmary Brown, the 7 year old beaten and tortured to death last month, claims that Brown was a "devil" and that's why he had to beat her. Statements written by Cesar Rodriguez were made public: "With no intention of causing her death, I carelessly corrected my stepdaughter's actions. I took it upon myself to defend the safety of my other five beautiful children." Yeah, and that would be accomplished by hitting her......

Nixzmary Brown's grandmother is trying to get custody of her daughter's other five children. This may become a big case, as Newsday reports that one of the children's father has also petitioned for custody after7 year-old Brown's death at the hands of her stepfather and under the watch of her mother. This comes after the Daily News reveals that Brown's mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, told fellow inmates that her daughter deserved to be punished. One woman......

Cesar Rodriguez, the man who beat his stepdaughter Nixzmary Brown, sparking a citywide investigation into children welfare services and lobbying for children's murder cases to require the death penalty, jailhouse interviews saying Brown was trouble and essentially deserved to be beaten. He said: "I would hold her up to the mirror and make her look at herself and I would say, 'Do you really want to live like this? Look at yourself. Talk to yourself.......

The death of Nixzmary Brown, the fourth death at the hands of abusive parents in recent months and whose abuse case was supposedly being investigated by the Administration for Children's Services, has led to an agency "shake-up": Three employees were suspended and three others were reassigned, with punishment to be determined. Of the employees who were suspended, one was the supervisor who let an investigation about possible abuse close, even though the 7 year old......

Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes charged both parents of Nixzmary Brown, the 7 year old girl who died of abuse, with second degree murder. Stepfather Cesar Rodriguez had beaten Brown to death on January 10 as Brown's mother Nixzaliz Santiago did nothing, and originally Rodriguez was charged with second degree murder and Santiago with manslaughter - but yesterday DA Hynes said the grand jury found that Santiago "created a grave risk of death" for her daughter.......

Yesterday, New Yorkers flocked to the East Village to pay their respects to Nixzmary Brown, whose small 7 year old body was shown in an open casket wake at the First Avenue Ortiz Funeral Home. Brown, who was killed in an abusive fit by her stepfather Cesar Rodriguez as her mother Nixzaliz Santiago stood by, has become the symbol for everything that could be wrong with the city's protective services for children. Brown's relatives described......

Yesterday, Nixzaliz Santiago, the mother of 7 year old Nixzmary Brown who was killed at the abusive hands of Santiago's boyfriend Cesar Rodriguez - and Santiago herself - granted jailhouse interviews with the Daily News and NY Post. She tells the Daily News that she still loved Rodriguez. She does admit that she saw/heard Rodriguez "punish" Brown that fateful night (dunking the 36 pound child in the water-filled bathtub, hitting her head against the faucet)......