NEW YORK (AP) – Nixzmary Brown was hungry. So she went to the refrigerator and grabbed a cup of yogurt.

But in the eyes of her parents, this was just one more intolerable act by a 7-year-old girl who was branded an out-of-control troublemaker by her stepfather. He claimed she stole money from her parents and broke the toys of her siblings. She stole milk from a younger sibling and broke the computer printer, he said.

So when the stepfather found out that the yogurt was missing, he flew into a rage. Police say he beat her to death, tossing her battered, lifeless body on the floor of what was known in the family’s apartment as the “dirty room.” It was in this rodent-infested room that authorities said the girl was tied up and forced to go to the bathroom in a litter box.

Nixzmary Brown’s killing has reverberated throughout this stunned city. Hundreds of strangers showed up at her funeral, and the case has been a daily fixture in the tabloids. It has also forced a major shake-up at the city agency empowered to protect children.

“It touched everyone,” said Caridad Ramos, 44, Nixzmary’s great aunt.

The mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, 27, and the stepfather, Cesar Rodriguez, 27, were charged with multiple felony counts, including second-degree murder. Rodriguez has also been accused of molesting Nixzmary and abusing her other five siblings who lived in the cramped Brooklyn apartment.

Rodriguez and Santiago have pleaded not guilty in the girl’s death.

The case has shocked the most seasoned investigators and child advocates.

“The circumstances of the abuse this girl suffered were horrifying and among the most tragic that I’ve ever come across,” said Erik Pitchal, director of the Center for Family and Child Advocacy at the Fordham School of Law. “The manner in which she spent her last days is heart wrenching.”

By the city’s own admission, all the warning signs were there.

Last May, a guidance counselor at Nixzmary’s school reported the child had missed 47 days of school. The city’s Administration for Children’s Services responded immediately but closed the case weeks later.

The agency had failed to find “educational neglect when it was clear the girl had not been attending school,” according to John Mattingly, the agency’s commissioner.

In early December, ACS received another complaint about Nixzmary. She, along with her five siblings and the stepfather, were interviewed.

But Mattingly said caseworkers were unable to gain access to Nixzmary’s home. The case stalled.

Santiago’s relatives said they didn’t know what was taking place at the home. They lost contact after she moved from Puerto Rico to New York several years ago.

Ramos, Santiago’s aunt, said she hadn’t seen Nixzmary in four years.

“If the family had been aware,” Ramos said, “this never would have happened. Never. Never. Never.”

Rodriguez, who had been fired from his job three days before Christmas, described Nixzmary in published reports as a puckish troublemaker.

“This child was a handful,” he said in a jailhouse interview.

He says he tried to rein her in. According to the indictment, he imprisoned her in the dirty room, where she was tied to a chair.

Ultimately, the stern stepfather, who claims his mother used to beat him mercilessly, decided to tame Nixzmary for good, authorities said.

The indictment alleges that beginning on New Year’s Day, Rodriguez used anything he could to subdue the little girl.

A belt. A piece of wood. The floor. A bungee cord. A wall.

The alleged torture climaxed 11 days later.

Authorities said the stepfather bought yogurt for his children but refused to give Nixzmary any.

At some point on the night of Jan. 10, Nixzmary’s mother discovered one of the yogurt cups was missing. She went to Rodriguez and cast blame on Nixzmary.

The frightened girl denied the theft, but one of the other children tattled.

Later, Rodriguez discovered his computer printer was broken. Again, Santiago blamed Nixzmary and Rodriguez erupted.

He stripped Nixzmary of her clothes and systematically beat her in front of Santiago, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes said.

Dragging her into the bathroom, he repeatedly dunked her head under the cold water flowing from the tub faucet, investigators say.

Loud banging noises and screams of “Mommy” were heard throughout the apartment.

Then, the shrieks and thuds ceased. Silence.

Rodriguez carried Nixzmary’s limp body into the dirty room and tossed her to the floor, Hynes said.

When Nixzmary’s mother checked on the child several hours later, she was dead.

Santiago told a neighbor that Nixzmary had drowned while taking a bath. Police didn’t buy it.

“I’m sorry what happened,” he said in the jailhouse interview. “I have a lot of guilt. I have a problem with my emotions. It all built up, and I emotionally just burst.”

In the end, Nixzmary had succumbed to repeated pummeling. She had two black eyes after her mother had thrown her to the floor in an earlier incident, Hynes said.

Her 36-pound body was mottled with bruises, lacerations, and abrasions – all in various stages of healing. The little girl was tougher than anyone should have ever expected.

Recently, the ACS’s rocky record has been highlighted not only by Nixzmary’s slaying, but the bumbling of two recent cases in which another 7-year-old girl was murdered and a baby drowned.

Since her death, six ACS employees have either been suspended or reassigned. In the week following Nixmary’s death, the agency received 2,170 reports of child abuse and neglect, a 71 percent increase from the same period a year ago.

Before her little white coffin was laid to rest, the Rev. Robert O’Neil, the church pastor, said Nixzmary’s nightmare was finally over.

“Nixzmary is now surrounded by love,” he said, “beyond the touch of evil.”

AP-ES-01-21-06 0919EST

Copy the Story Link