A Bronx mother was granted supervised release on Tuesday, days after police found her 6-year-old daughter dead in her squalid apartment.
According to the Daily News, Lynija Eason will be given an ankle monitor before being transported home, where she will await the verdict on the potential homicide charge.
Authorities are waiting for 6-year-old Jalayah’s autopsy results. If the medical examiner rules her death as a homicide, those charges will be applied to the case.
The court charged Eason with child endangerment after police discovered bruises on the bodies of her two children, an 8-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl.
“The investigation into the cause and manner of the defendant’s 6-year-old child’s death continues,” Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said. “She was given supervised release at arraignment. She will remain in custody until an ankle monitor is installed.”
On Friday, May 26, Eason called the New York Police Department around 4 a.m. about Jalayah not breathing and her cold body. Authorities arrived at the 12th-floor apartment at NYCHA’s Forest Houses on East 165th Street and rushed Jalayah to Lincoln Hospital, where she was declared dead.
Jalayah reportedly had bruises and trauma to her neck and chest.
Police noted in their report the stacks of food containers that littered the apartment’s floor. They added that urine, feces and rotten food permeated the apartment infested with insects.
Police also noted the young boy’s “countless small lacerations in various stages of healing on his back, scalp, arms and legs.” He had a laceration on his forehead and a deep, healing gash on his scalp.
The 3-year-old girl had “a long discolored scar to the right side of her waist,” and her inner thighs and buttock had a huge discolored rash.
Neighbors have reported hearing screams and thumps from the apartment. One neighbor heard Jalayah screaming for her life the day she died.
“At 3:42 in the morning, that girl was screaming,” Dennis Rivera told the New York Post. “She was screaming for her dear life…She was screaming like hell. She kept saying ‘stop, stop, stop’…’ You could hear the thumps, bro.”
Police interviewed Eason’s son, who told investigators that his “mommy” would hit him in the past.
The two living children are in the Administration of Children’s Services custody.
