Jurors Wednesday saw video in Manhattan court of the filthy apartment where 6-year-old Zymere Perkins was tortured to death.
The short clip of the house of horrors at 606 W. 135th St. shows a cluttered kitchen, its countertops piled with dirty pots and dishes.
In the living room is a white bucket filled with putrid brown water, a floor covered with dirty clothes and a table with half a dozen overturned prescription bottles.
The video was introduced during testimony from NYPD Lt. Crinela Ianas at the murder trial of Rysheim Smith, the boyfriend of the child’s mother.
Ianas did not say whether this was the same bucket that prosecutors said Zymere was forced to relieve himself in. Just as grimy were the apartment’s three bedrooms and bathroom.
The wretched, roach-infested home is where Assistant DA Kerry O’Connell alleged that Smith bludgeoned Zymere to death Sept. 26, 2016, after the child defecated in the living room. Smith allegedly dragged the boy to the crud-encrusted bathtub, dumped him under a frigid shower and continued to beat him with a shower rod.
Smith hung the barely conscious and sopping wet child on a hook affixed to the bathroom door where prosecutors said he likely took his last breath.
That final beating came after months of unrelenting abuse and neglect that left Zymere severely malnourished and underweight. A city medical examiner testified Tuesday that the 35-pound child had more than 30 rib fractures and was covered from head to toe in scars and bruises.
His mother, Geraldine Perkins, met Smith 16 months earlier and moved her and her son into the squalid apartment, which had no electricity. Smith was illegally squatting.
In afternoon testimony at the Manhattan Supreme Court trial, Administration of Children’s Services staffer Peter Alexander told jurors that the child welfare agency received five reports alleging abuse or neglect of Zymere during his brief life. After the tragedy, ACS was widely criticized for its failure to properly follow up on the cases.
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