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The Brooklyn DA's office played a videotaped interview with the mother on trial of killing her abused daughter, saying the video implicated her in the death. Nixzaliz Santiago spoke to police and prosecutors after her 7-year-old daughter Nixzmary Brown was found dead in January 2006, saying that she didn't "call for help because Nixzmary"--who was brutally beaten by Santiago's husband--was "moaning, breathing." Prosecutors, who say that Santiago's inaction led to the child's death, pointed to how one moment she's crying, the next she's composed, suggesting Santiago was acting when she eventually called 911. The jury may start deliberating next week.

Yesterday, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Patricia DiMango stopped the Nixzmary Brown murder trial to question a juror. A letter suggested the 35-year-old male schoolteacher indicated he could not be fair during jury selection by raising his hand, but "the judge and the lawyers did not notice," according to the Daily News. However, the juror said he could be fair in the emotional trial, where Nixzaliz Santiago is accused of murdering her 7-year-old daughter. Earlier this week, the AP looked at how the trial " raised the question of whether mothers should be held to a higher standard than fathers at a time when traditional gender roles in the home are changing." The Brooklyn DA's point is that Santiago left Nixzmary to die after her husband administered a brutal beating.

Prosecutor Ama Dwimoh told jurors what 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown's final words were, "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy" "after being beaten, battered, broken and thrown naked onto a cold wooden floor." Brown's mother Nixzaliz Santiago is on trial for the girl's murder, as the Brooklyn DA's office contends Santiago did nothing to prevent her husband Cesar Rodriguez from delivering a fatal beating in January 2006. Dwimoh added, "She left her to die. Nixzaliz Santiago simply did not care."

Jurors were warned by prosecutors that the trial would be "emotional" as jury selection began in for a second trial related to 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown's death. This time, the child's mother Nixzaliz Santiago faces murder charges.

After a jury found her stepfather guilty of manslaughter, the Brooklyn DA's office is readying for a second trial in the death of 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown. This time, her mother Nixzaliz Santiago will be in court, and the Daily News reports reports prosecutors may suggest Santiago was "jealous because she believed her husband having sex with the 7-year-old" and therefore allowed her daughter to be tortured. A prosecutor said, "Motive is always relevant. If she believed her husband was doing that ... whether the allegations are true or not, it goes to her state of mind." Stepfather Cesar Rodriguez's defense had been that Santiago directly caused the child's death.

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."

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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:

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.

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 far - Brown's biological father plans to sue, as well as one of Brown's sibling's father. The last we heard, Gonzalez was planning on raising her daughter, Nixzliaz Santiago's other children. Santiago's husband, Cesar Rodriguez, is blamed for dealing Brown the fatal blows; both Santiago and Rodriguez were indicted in Brown's murder.

The stepfather of Nixzmary Brown, the 7 year old beaten and tortured to death last month, claims that Brown was a "devil" and that's why he had to beat her. Statements written by Cesar Rodriguez were made public: "With no intention of causing her death, I carelessly corrected my stepdaughter's actions. I took it upon myself to defend the safety of my other five beautiful children." Yeah, and that would be accomplished by hitting her head against the bathtub faucet? Tying her up to a chair? Starving her? Rodriguez and Brown's mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, were both charged with murdering the girl, and pleaded not guilty yesterday. NY1 reports that Rodriguez's lawyer even said that another person "was to blame for the child's death, but would not identify the person." And what's more, Rodriguez wants to create a fund for abused children - and wants Oprah Winfrey to help out!

Nixzmary Brown's grandmother is trying to get custody of her daughter's other five children. This may become a big case, as Newsday reports that one of the children's father has also petitioned for custody after7 year-old Brown's death at the hands of her stepfather and under the watch of her mother. This comes after the Daily News reveals that Brown's mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, told fellow inmates that her daughter deserved to be punished. One woman at the Brooklyn Criminal Court holding cell for driving with a suspended license said, "She tried to defend him, saying the little girl was so bad. She was the only one who wasn't crying. She just sat there remorseless." Brown was charged with second degree murder, as was husband Cesar Rodriguez.

Cesar Rodriguez, the man who beat his stepdaughter Nixzmary Brown, sparking a citywide investigation into children welfare services and lobbying for children's murder cases to require the death penalty, jailhouse interviews saying Brown was trouble and essentially deserved to be beaten. He said:

"I would hold her up to the mirror and make her look at herself and I would say, 'Do you really want to live like this? Look at yourself. Talk to yourself. How do you feel about yourself?'"

The death of Nixzmary Brown, the fourth death at the hands of abusive parents in recent months and whose abuse case was supposedly being investigated by the Administration for Children's Services, has led to an agency "shake-up": Three employees were suspended and three others were reassigned, with punishment to be determined. Of the employees who were suspended, one was the supervisor who let an investigation about possible abuse close, even though the 7 year old had missed 47 days of school, and the others were a supervisor and caseworker who, as Newsday puts it "oversaw the fiasco in which officials failed to gain the needed access to the victim's house." The social service workers' union rep criticized the actions, saying that more training is needed, not suspensions. ACS Commissioner John Mattingly also realigned ACS management, making his deputy commissioner the president of child safety and creating a Child Safety Task Forse.

Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes charged both parents of Nixzmary Brown, the 7 year old girl who died of abuse, with second degree murder. Stepfather Cesar Rodriguez had beaten Brown to death on January 10 as Brown's mother Nixzaliz Santiago did nothing, and originally Rodriguez was charged with second degree murder and Santiago with manslaughter - but yesterday DA Hynes said the grand jury found that Santiago "created a grave risk of death" for her daughter. And with the indictment, the DA's office offered grisly details about Brown's death. From the NY Times:

That pattern approached its climax on Jan. 10 as Nixzmary's siblings were compelled to accuse her of eating yogurt without permission and breaking a computer printer, prosecutors said. As punishment, they said, the girl was stripped naked, beaten, dunked in cold water and thrown on the floor to lie untended for hours in a place the other children called "the dirty room."

Yesterday, New Yorkers flocked to the East Village to pay their respects to Nixzmary Brown, whose small 7 year old body was shown in an open casket wake at the First Avenue Ortiz Funeral Home. Brown, who was killed in an abusive fit by her stepfather Cesar Rodriguez as her mother Nixzaliz Santiago stood by, has become the symbol for everything that could be wrong with the city's protective services for children. Brown's relatives described Nixzmary as looking like "an angel" in her casket, but there were sparks when Rodriguez's sister appeared. Mourners derided the system for letting the child down, and Mayor Bloomberg said that the city will conduct a full investigation to understand "exactly how this breakdown occured. People will be held accountable for their actions." Hmm, we wonder if the Mayor will go to the wake or funeral. The Post says that many Administration for Children's Service workers will be suspended as a result of this tragedy, while the Daily News reports the NYPD claims they never spoke to Nixzmary when detective accompanied ACS caseworkers to her apartment, which may have implications about whether or not the NYPD did everything it could have.

Yesterday, Nixzaliz Santiago, the mother of 7 year old Nixzmary Brown who was killed at the abusive hands of Santiago's boyfriend Cesar Rodriguez - and Santiago herself - granted jailhouse interviews with the Daily News and NY Post. She tells the Daily News that she still loved Rodriguez. She does admit that she saw/heard Rodriguez "punish" Brown that fateful night (dunking the 36 pound child in the water-filled bathtub, hitting her head against the faucet) - but went to sleep afterward. She says she was afraid of Rodriguez beating her; she also said that other female inmates at Rikers have threatened to kill her.