Details About Dead S.I. Boy's Short Life

The Staten Island's DA's office gave some very grim details about the final hours of 10-year-old Jaquan Sekulski's life, after his mother was arraigned on manslaughter charges. Melissa Sekulski was arrested after the boy's unconscious body was found in their apartment Friday night. The prosecutor, who noted the apartment was infested with cockroaches and had no food, said, "The defendant has been physically abusing the victim for years, by her own admission... She thrashed him with a belt and belt buckle and a burned him with the buckle." The boy's headed was smashed against the wall repeatedly on Friday night, but a neighbor, who came to help when he heard the mother's cries and saw fluid coming from Jaquan's nose, told the News, "His mother told me he was having trouble breathing and he wanted to lay down on the floor... I was thinking, poor woman - I was really feeling sorry for her." The News also heard from an inmate, who claimed Sekulski "was telling a lot of people that the kid got out of hand and she just lost it." The S.I. D.A.'s office said the child died of "battered child syndrome."