NYC mom questioned over daughter’s fatal beating charged with abusing her other children
The Bronx mom who was questioned about her young daughter’s death was released Sunday after being arraigned on a pair of child endangerment charges for allegedly abusing her other two children.
Lynija Eason — whose daughter, Jalayah Eason, was found unconscious and covered in bruises in the family apartment Friday — was released from Bronx Criminal Court with electronic monitoring after being slapped with two counts of acting in a manner injurious to a child younger than 17 years old.
She has not been charged in Jalayah’s death, which a police spokesperson said has not yet been ruled a homicide.
Neighbors say they heard the 6-year-old girl begging for her life during a 4 a.m. beating.
Eason called 911 about that time and told police she found the girl cold and not breathing inside a closet in their squalid 12th floor apartment at NYCHA’s Forest Houses on East 165th Street.
Authorities brought Jalayah to Lincoln Hospital, but she did not survive.
On Sunday, Eason appeared in Bronx Criminal Court on charges that she’d hurt her other two children: Jezheir Eason-Branch, age 8, and Jelyenn Eason-Harris, age 3.
NYPD Det. Frankie Hernandez wrote in the complaint that the two kids had cuts, scars and rashes when police visited the home May 26.
Jezheir had “countless small lacerations in various stages of healing on his back, scalp, arms and legs,” Hernandez wrote. The boy allegedly also had a cut on his forehead and a deep, partially-healed gash on his scalp.
Little Jelyenn had a “long, discolored scar” on her waist and a “widespread discolored rash to her inner thighs and buttocks,” Hernandez wrote.
The apartment was littered with trash, including soiled clothing and linen, open containers of food stacked up on the floor and other garbage, the complaint states.
Food rotted in the refrigerator and cabinets, insects infested the home and the place smelled of urine and feces, Hernandez wrote.
Eason told police she took care of her kids on her own, and no one else lived in the dwelling.
Cops brought her to the 42nd Precinct station house for questioning after they found bruises and other signs of trauma on Jalayah’s wrists and torso Friday.
Upstairs neighbor Dennis Rivera told The Post that he was alarmed by an early morning commotion Friday, and he heard Jalayah “screaming for her dear life.”
“At 3:42 in the morning that girl was screaming,” Rivera said. “She was screaming for dear life . . . She was screaming like hell.”
“She kept saying ‘stop, stop, stop’ . . . “You could hear the thumps, bro.”
Police sources said there had been several calls for domestic violence at the family’s address.
The city’s Administration for Children’s Services declined to say Sunday where the other two children were living at the moment, but noted that they were safe.
“We are investigating this case with the NYPD,” an ACS spokesperson said in an email. “The safety of the other children in the home has been secured.”
Eason’s next court date is June 2.
