NEW YORK, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- A young New York man allegedly fatally beat his 3-year-old stepdaughter and knocked her head against the wall when she soiled her underpants.
Jeida Torres died Saturday in Wyckoff Hospital in Brooklyn hours after police found her unconscious in the apartment in a Brooklyn homeless shelter where Kelsey Smith, 20, and Kimberly Torres lived. Smith fled the apartment and was arrested after his mother told police he had called her.
Before his arrest, Smith slit his wrists in a failed suicide attempt.
The New York Daily News, citing sources, reported that Smith called 911 claiming to be a neighbor and saying police should go to the apartment because the children, Jeida and her 5-year-old brother, were "acting up."
Andrew Torres was alone in the apartment with his unconscious sister when police got there. He allegedly told investigators that his stepfather became furious when his sister soiled herself, thrust her dirty underpants in her face and told her to "eat it," and then began beating her.
"He was her little protector," Tina Torres, a cousin, told the Daily News. "Any time anyone would go near her, or try to pick her up, he'd be like, 'Hey, what are you doing?' They don't know what to tell him because he's so young."
