Go-go dancer Sherry Murphy, accused of abusing her cousin’s children in a Newark basement, pleaded not guilty yesterday to child endangerment charges and says it was the boys’ mother who killed one of the kids.
The boys’ mother, Melinda Williams, 31, has been in critical condition at Lincoln Hospital since she was hit by a car in The Bronx last Saturday. That’s the day two of her sons, Tyrone Hill, 4, and Raheem Williams, 7, were discovered emaciated and starving in Murphy’s Parker Street basement.
The following day, police found the mummified remains of Faheem Williams, Raheem’s twin, in a plastic storage bin in another room of the basement.
Yesterday Williams told investigators that Murphy’s claims were lies and hired Manhattan criminal attorney Ron Klegerman to represent her.
Murphy’s public defender John McMann appeared on her behalf yesterday at Essex County Courthouse in Newark and said she had nothing to do with the death of Faheem.
Judge Harold Fullilove ordered Murphy held without bail as police and court investigators sort out the horrible drama.
“The investigation’s on-going, we’re still interviewing witnesses and following leads,” said Essex County prosecutor spokesperson Carroll Smith.
“There are a lot more things to look at.”
Murphy was found hiding in a stranger’s basement Thursday after a four-day manhunt. Questioned by Newark cops, she told them it was the boys’ mother who killed her own son, Faheem, and stuffed him in the plastic bin in a cramped apartment in Irvington last September.
An autopsy showed the boy died from starvation and blunt force trauma to the stomach.
Murphy, 41, had been looking after Williams’ kids after Williams was sent to prison for child abuse. Williams claims she hasn’t seen the children since early last year when she went to jail.
Murphy said she couldn’t tell investigators how Raheem was killed or how his body ended up in a Parker Street apartment, cops said.
The two surviving boys are in fair condition at University Hospital in Newark.
Members of the boys’ extended family said they had been shuffled around to different relatives their whole lives. They blame state social workers for never trying to remove the boys from their Newark home, despite a decade of complaints and a jail sentence for Williams.
The Division of Youth and Family Services case worker and the supervisor involved in the case have been suspended with pay. Both could be fired.
The younger boy’s father, who is living in Vermont, said he wants his son back and plans to sue New Jersey for failing to protect him.