Man Arraigned on Murder Charge in Beating Death of 3-Year-Old Girl

The medical examiner ruled the child's death a homicide

A Brooklyn man accused of beating his 3-year-old stepdaughter to death because she soiled her diaper was ordered held without bail after being arraigned on murder and other charges Wednesday.

Kelsey Smith, 20, has been hospitalized since the little girl's beating Saturday at a homeless shelter in Bushwick. Authorities have said he apparently tried to slit his wrists.

Attorney Craig Newman was at his side at the hospital, but did not speak about the allegations.

The medical examiner ruled the death of Jeida Torres a homicide, determining she died from blunt impact injuries to her head and torso.

Police said Torres' 5-year-old brother gave detectives a detailed account of the assault, telling them Smith banged his sister's head against a bed frame, then choked her after she soiled her diaper.

The little boy was found injured near his bruised and unconscious sister in a shelter on Cooper Street. Torres was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Her brother was hospitalized in stable condition. Neighbor Keith Best told the Daily News and New York Post that the boy had big bruises on his face and arms.

The boy told investigators Smith, who was watching the children while their mother was at work, made Torres smell her own dirty diaper, then told her to eat the excrement inside it, a law enforcement source told NBC 4 New York.

When the girl refused, Smith allegedly told her brother to eat it, the source said. He refused, and Smith allegedly attacked both children.

Smith, who police said was married to the children's 24-year-old mother, had lived with the family for three months. He has 15 prior arrests, including a 2010 arrest for robbery in which police say he slammed a 14-year-old boy into an iron gate, kicked him on the ground, then put his knee on the boy's throat before stealing his wallet with $10 in it, records show. Smith was 15 at the time of that arrest.

He has also been arrested three times while jailed on Rikers Island, charged last October with assault for shoving a correction officer into a door, splashing two correction officers with an unknown liquid in February and damaging a sprinkler head, causing his cell to flood last November, according to records.

Mayor de Blasio has said the administration was conducting a thorough internal investigation into the child's death. 

Copyright AP - Associated Press
Contact Us