She called him the world’s greatest dad. And he repaid her with fists and a belt, say prosecutors.
Brooklyn jurors hearing the murder case against the stepfather of murdered 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown saw crime-scene photos of a Father’s Day gift from the doomed girl, a coffee mug with the words “World’s Greatest Dad” printed on it.
Detective Joseph Bello, who took the pictures the morning of Jan. 11, 2006, after little Nixzmary was found beaten to death in her family’s Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment, smiled thinly as he testified that he “just thought it was pretty weird.”
But jurors weighing the fate of the stepfather, Cesar Rodriguez, didn’t crack a smile as they surveyed the photo of the mug, which was adorned with a stuffed doll.
“Ironically, I believe Nixzmary had bought it for him,” said defense lawyer Jeffrey Schwartz. “I think the mother went with her to the store to get a Father’s Day gift.
“Nixzmary and he had a very close relationship. He used to tutor her. He had no reason to hurt her.”
But he did, prosecutors charge.
Yesterday, they unveiled the black-leather belt Rodriguez, 29, was wearing the morning of his arrest, a belt prosecutors say holds traces of Nixzmary’s DNA.
“He said, ‘This is the belt I used to hit my daughter,’ ” Detective Carlos Pantoja told jurors.
Prosecutor Ama Dwimoh scoffed at Schwartz’s contention that the mug was evidence of good parenting.
“You’ll draw your own conclusions,” she said. “It is our position, based on the evidence, based on this prosecution, the last thing he was was the ‘world’s greatest dad.’ ”
Rodriguez is charged with murder in the death of the girl, who weighed just 36 pounds when police found her limp body on the floor of the apartment.
Schwartz admits his client disciplined the girl harshly, hitting her with a belt and his fists at times, but denied that Rodriguez delivered the killing blow the morning she died.
Instead, he accused police and prosecutors of rushing to judgment, without considering the possibility that the girl’s mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, was the one responsible.
Prosecutors have charged both parents.