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Boy dead in brutal beating
BY DEREK ROSE and FERNANDA SANTOS
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Monday, September 20th, 2004
A 2-year-old boy was beaten to death in a Manhattan apartment early yesterday - in an attack so savage it tore the toddler's liver, fractured his ribs and broke his little hands, authorities said.
Jovann Matos lay listless inside a Harlem public housing complex while his mother's lesbian lover blew air into his mouth and pumped his chest in a desperate effort to keep him alive, neighbor Melody Walker said.
"He was just so cold and blue," said Walker, who rushed to the boy's aid after his mother pounded on her door at the Grant Houses just before 2 a.m., pleading for help.
Jovann, who arrived in New York from Wyoming, Mich., barely two months ago, died at St. Luke's Hospital at 2:26 a.m.
Police were questioning his mother, Zahira Matos, and her girlfriend, 32-year-old Carmen Molina, the only two adults they found present in the 15th-floor apartment where the boy met his violent end.
As of late last night, no one had been charged in the boy's death.
"I don't know what happened," Carmen Molina's 34-year-old sister, Iris, said outside the 26th Precinct station on W. 126th St.
"Zahira was a good parent," said Iris Molina, a teacher's aide at nearby Public School 125. "Both of them were good parents."
Iris Molina left her public housing apartment at 3170 Broadway three weeks ago to make more room for Carmen Molina, Matos and her three children - Jovann and two daughters, a newborn and a 6-year-old.
While her lover worked at a deli, Matos stayed home, caring for her kids, Iris Molina said.
"They've always been good parents," said Janet Molina, another of Carmen's sisters. "They've never been abusive."
The city's Administration of Children's Services had no prior history with the family, a spokeswoman said.
Authorities in Michigan, however, investigated an allegation of child abuse logged against Matos, a law enforcement source said. It was unclear last night whether the complaint was substantiated or if any action was taken.
Jovann died from fatal child abuse syndrome, caused by multiple blows to the head, chest and limbs that fractured his ribs and extremities and ruptured his liver, medical examiner spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said.
Walker said she was haunted by what she saw when she arrived at the apartment: the little boy motionless, his eyes shut, his legs covered in blood.
"I'd never seen anything like that," said Walker, 26. "She
[Zahira] never seemed like the type to do anything to any of her kids."
Investigators rummaged through the building's trash compactor, looking for a bloody sheet and bloody rags. A handwritten note taped to the 15th-floor chute read, "Do not use compactor. Police crime scene."
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/233971p-200840c.html
BY DEREK ROSE and FERNANDA SANTOS
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Monday, September 20th, 2004
A 2-year-old boy was beaten to death in a Manhattan apartment early yesterday - in an attack so savage it tore the toddler's liver, fractured his ribs and broke his little hands, authorities said.
Jovann Matos lay listless inside a Harlem public housing complex while his mother's lesbian lover blew air into his mouth and pumped his chest in a desperate effort to keep him alive, neighbor Melody Walker said.
"He was just so cold and blue," said Walker, who rushed to the boy's aid after his mother pounded on her door at the Grant Houses just before 2 a.m., pleading for help.
Jovann, who arrived in New York from Wyoming, Mich., barely two months ago, died at St. Luke's Hospital at 2:26 a.m.
Police were questioning his mother, Zahira Matos, and her girlfriend, 32-year-old Carmen Molina, the only two adults they found present in the 15th-floor apartment where the boy met his violent end.
As of late last night, no one had been charged in the boy's death.
"I don't know what happened," Carmen Molina's 34-year-old sister, Iris, said outside the 26th Precinct station on W. 126th St.
"Zahira was a good parent," said Iris Molina, a teacher's aide at nearby Public School 125. "Both of them were good parents."
Iris Molina left her public housing apartment at 3170 Broadway three weeks ago to make more room for Carmen Molina, Matos and her three children - Jovann and two daughters, a newborn and a 6-year-old.
While her lover worked at a deli, Matos stayed home, caring for her kids, Iris Molina said.
"They've always been good parents," said Janet Molina, another of Carmen's sisters. "They've never been abusive."
The city's Administration of Children's Services had no prior history with the family, a spokeswoman said.
Authorities in Michigan, however, investigated an allegation of child abuse logged against Matos, a law enforcement source said. It was unclear last night whether the complaint was substantiated or if any action was taken.
Jovann died from fatal child abuse syndrome, caused by multiple blows to the head, chest and limbs that fractured his ribs and extremities and ruptured his liver, medical examiner spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said.
Walker said she was haunted by what she saw when she arrived at the apartment: the little boy motionless, his eyes shut, his legs covered in blood.
"I'd never seen anything like that," said Walker, 26. "She
[Zahira] never seemed like the type to do anything to any of her kids."
Investigators rummaged through the building's trash compactor, looking for a bloody sheet and bloody rags. A handwritten note taped to the 15th-floor chute read, "Do not use compactor. Police crime scene."
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/233971p-200840c.html
