Nymeen Cheatham & Lemar Martin - murder of 3 y.o. - TBD
NYC couple charged with assault in boy's slaying By KAREN MATTHEWS, Associated Press Writer Mon Jun 9, 8:07 PM ET NEW YORK - Two people have been charged with beating a 3-year-old boy who died in their care in a home just blocks from where a girl's brutal death in 2006 spurred calls for reform in the city's child-welfare agency. Police and social workers had gone several times to the Brooklyn apartment where Kyle Smith lived but never saw any problems. Neighbors said they saw abuse, but never reported it. Kyle was sodomized, beaten, doused with cold water and forced to do push-ups and march in place as punishment, according to court papers. His numerous injuries included a torn tongue, bruises to his back, buttocks, legs and scrotum, and lacerations inside his anus. The boy was pronounced dead at a hospital Friday after police were called to the Brooklyn apartment where he lived with Nymeen Cheatham, 30, and her companion Lemar Martin, 25. The death has been ruled a homicide. Cheatham and Martin were arrested Saturday and arraigned Sunday on charges including assault and endangering the welfare of a child. Prosecutors said in a criminal complaint that the pair confessed to police that they beat the boy. Jonah Bruno, a spokesman for Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes, said charges against Cheatham and Martin could be upgraded following an investigation. Martin's attorney, Spiro Ferris, did not return a call seeking comment Monday. Attempts to reach Cheatham's attorney, Joseph Miller, were unsuccessful. Ferris and Miller argued for their clients to be released on bail Sunday because the top charge was assault. Supreme Court Justice John Walsh ordered them held without bail. Neighbors told the Daily News that they saw the boy being abused and now regret failing to report it to authorities. "Everyone could have said something but nobody did," Hason Parker told the paper. "Now this little boy is dead." Parker said he once saw Cheatham screaming at Kyle outside in the cold. "It was 15 degrees and she had this heavy jacket on and he was in pajama shorts and a tank," Parker said. "The little boy was shivering and crying." Police and social workers from the city's Administration for Children's Services had visited the home and reported no signs of abuse. Cheatham and Martin did not have legal custody of Kyle, but he was living with them after his drug-addicted mother gave him up last year. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said officers were called to the home four times since late 2007, all for issues related to visitation with Kyle's biological father, Darien Smith. Spokeswoman Sheila Stainback said the agency conducted a court-ordered investigation of the home last October after Cheatham filed for legal custody of Kyle. "We found the house in order and the child happy and healthy at that time," she said. Cheatham did not pursue legal custody, and the agency had no further official role in the matter. Cheatham's and Martin's apartment is in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant section, the same neighborhood where 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown was killed in January 2006. Nixzmary's stepfather, Cesar Rodriguez, was sentenced last month to up to 29 years in prison in her death. Her mother faces a separate trial later this year. The scrawny and battered girl was bound to a chair, starved and forced to urinate in a litter box before she was killed with a fatal blow to the head. That case shocked the city and created pressure for reforms. The agency hired 20 "protective agents" with previous law enforcement experience to serve as consultants and help caseworkers improve their investigative skills. The city also started a campaign to try to get New Yorkers to "say something" and dial 311 if they suspect abuse. Stainback said no one reported Cheatham or Martin for abuse. "The terrible case of abuse involving Kyle Smith is deeply felt here at ACS," she said. "We are again asking neighbors, family and friends to call 311 (or 911 in an emergency) if they suspect child abuse or neglect." ___ Associated Press writer Colleen Long contributed to this report. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080610/ap_on_re_us/boy_beaten;_ylt=AruXPwPsGO.BUIfa_84nPERH2ocA

Dad 'crushed' over death of little Kyle BY MATTHEW LYSIAK, WIL CRUZ, ALISON GENDAR, SCOTT SHIFREL and TINA MOORE DAILY NEWS WRITERS Tuesday, June 10th 2008, 4:00 AM This is the angelic face of Kyle Smith before the Brooklyn 3-year-old was found beaten to death last week - an atrocious crime that left his dad "crushed." Elliot Smith posted dozens of photos of his son's all-too-brief life on his MySpace page, where he wrote Monday that he was devastated by the murder. "He is torn," Elliot Smith's mother, Norma Acosta, 45, said outside her Manhattan home. "He's in mourning right now. He's not doing very well at all, but he's hanging on." One photo dated Aug. 12, 2006, shows Kyle smiling widely on his second birthday as he and his brother Darien, 6, ride gleefully in a toy car. Another snapshot captures Kyle mugging for the camera in an oversize baseball cap. They were bright moments in a life that would end in misery and isolation. The boy's guardian, Nymeen Cheatham, 30, has admitted to beating Kyle with a hairbrush and her hands in the Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment she shared with her boyfriend, Lemar Martin, 25. Martin told cops he hit the boy repeatedly in the arm. The couple stopped short of admitting to killing the boy. Kyle had been staying with Cheatham and Martin since August 2007 because his drug addict mother was unable to take care of him. Cheatham did not have legal custody, and it was unclear why Smith did not claim his younger son. He could not be reached Monday. Even though Cheatham applied for custody of Kyle, she wasn't much of a mom. New York authorities apparently never knew that Cheatham's four biological children and younger brother were removed from her custody while she lived in Borger, Tex. Officials in Texas received calls in July 2002 that Cheatham and her husband repeatedly locked the children in a bedroom and left them home alone for hours at a time. The children used a broken window to escape the filthy house with no running water and beg for food, Texas court records show. It took more than an hour to coax the children, who ranged in age from 3 to 13, to open the door for social workers, court records show. One girl was hiding under a bed. Cheatham's children were placed with relatives in December 2003. It was unclear where Cheatham's 13-year-old brother was placed. Four years later, in October 2007, Cheatham was trying to get legal custody of Kyle when the city's Administration for Children's Services interviewed her. The social workers reported no signs of abuse or neglect, an official statement from the ACS said. Several signs that could have tipped off authorities that something was wrong seemed to have fallen through the cracks. Law enforcement sources said Cheatham told authorities she had four children in Texas, but no one ever followed up to find out what had happened to them. Police sources told the Daily News that Acosta told the ACS she feared her grandson was being mistreated. A statement from the ACS, however, said the agency never received any complaints. The custody case was closed in February without prejudice after Cheatham missed a court date, but nobody ever checked in on Kyle, law enforcement sources said. Cheatham never reopened the case. Kyle's broken body was found on Friday. He had severe injuries to his mouth and bruises on his back, buttocks, legs and scrotum. Cheatham and Martin were charged with assault and endangering the welfare of a child. Murder charges were pending, prosecutors said. City Councilman Bill de Blasio (D-Brooklyn) said he would be "asking more questions in the coming days to identify where we failed Kyle Smith." tmoore@nydailynews.com With Simone Weichselbaum, Edgar Sandoval and Kerry Burke http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/06/10/2008-06-10_dad_crushed_over_death_of_little_kyle_.html