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......

Eldridge St. Synagogue, by AllWaysNY at flickrToday on the Gothamist Newsmap: an overturned bulldozer on 65th St. and Metropolitan Ave. in Queens, vandalism to an NYPD vehicle at Newkirk Ave. and 31st St. in Brooklyn, and an armed robbery on 47th St. and Lexington Ave. in Manhattan. NYU is opening a foreign annex school in Abu Dhabi in a bid to expand intercultural awareness. No gays, Jews, or anyone who's visited Israel allowed, please.......

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.......

Happy Lunar New Year: Photograph of today's Chinatown festivities by Beatrice LeeToday on the Gothamist Newsmap: a school safety officer injured on Corporal Kennedy St. in Queens, a double stabbing on Madison St. and Seneca Ave. in Queens, and a stolen DHL truck in the area of North Henry St. in Brooklyn. A family-owned hardware store at Bergen St. and Flatbush Ave. has been open since the 1940s, but they now find themselves in......

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......

Untitled photo of dancers, by Raymond Haddad at flickr Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an escaped patient on the Van Wyck Expressway in Queens, a homicide on Bruner and Burke Aves. in the Bronx, and shots fired on Bainbridge St. and Lewis Ave. in Brooklyn. Jurors in the Nixzmary Brown murder trial were sent home for the second consecutive day Thursday as the defense, prosecution, and judge met in secret to discuss potentially bombshell......

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......

More than a year and a half after the death of Nixzmary Brown, the Administration for Children's Services has hired 20 retired NYPD detectives to work as trained investigators consulting with ACS caseworkers. The ACS plans on eventually fielding 120 such investigators. The need for a bolder approach to protecting children being monitored by the ACS follows the beating death of Brown in January 2006 and a number of other deaths of children under ACS......

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......

It was one year ago yesterday that 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown, previously starved and beaten, was murdered in Bed-Stuy - her stepfather and mother are currently charged with her death. On this grim anniversary, city officials and child advocates implored the government to increase resources in keeping with an increase in child abuse reports over the past year. Specifically, officials are requesting an increase in the number of Family Court judges and maintaining a healthy budget......

Subway special on the Gothamist Newsmap: a person struck by an A train in Brooklyn, a stabbing on the J train in Queens, and a "train job" (?) at Newkirk Avenue. Rosie's Trump beef now extends to Barbara Walters, who appears to have been stabbing her in the back in private conversations with Donald Trump: "Are you looking me in the face and denying you didn't tell him you didn't say this? You're a......

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......

Sigh. More news about how Administration of Children's Services caseworkers had a lot of contact with the parents of a 4 month old baby boy whose brain damage may be caused by shaken baby syndrome. In 2000, Antonio Patterson and Tamira Hertzog's baby daughter died, possibly by wounds inflicted by Patterson; the incident caused their children to be placed in foster care, but they were returned to their parents a few years later. A daughter......

-- "I loved my baby!" cried the young mother of the 4-month-old who drowned in a bucket of her mother's vomit to the Judge. -- A 33-year-old man was stabbed on a 2 train between Union Square and 23rd Street around 3 AM this morning. He is currently in stable condition, police are still looking for his attacker. -- The city is asking reservists to return their Iraq pay. -- Over $29 million for......

Weird stuff is happening with the Department of Transportation. First, the head of the bike program, Andrew Vesselovitch, left the DOT last Friday, and his farewell email pointed some serious criticism of the DOT. From Streetsblog: There is much more that the bicycle program could have done than it was allowed to do. The bicycle program, for example, could have produced plans for 40-50 miles of workable bicycle lanes each year. Instead, DOT installed little......

- This week's New York has a story, not yet online, on the shocking and tragic execution-style murder of Tiesha Sargeant in which her drug dealing boyfriend admits to having sold $6,000 worth of weed the day of the murder. - What happens when the Department of Buildings decides the Bed-Stuy building you just bought a condo in is illegally built? "No bank will give a loan on this, you can't refinance or take......

- A PATH train overheated this morning at the World Trade Center stop and passengers had to be evacuated - it's no tram drama! - Maury Povich (and his production company) is sued by an employee who makes all sorts of claims from adultery to being forced to watch porn at work - and there's the dressing in low cut shirts - The US's amassador to the UN says the Russian diplomat who drove......

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......

When news first broke concerning the death of Nixzmary Brown questions were immediately raised as to why the City's Administration for Children's Services had not been aware enough of Brown's situation to save her. In response to those questions, two weeks after her death, Mayor Bloomberg set up a panel to figure out what went wrong in Nixzmary's case, and how to prevent those mistakes from happening again. Yesterday that panel came back with......