Cesar Rodriguez
PER
Rodriguez Cesar Rodriguez
The formal charges against the parents, Cesar Rodriguez and Nixzaliz Santiago, both 27, of Bedford-Stuyvesant, were filed as the mayor defended his child welfare chief and as the second wave of mourners shuffled through a wake that drew more than 1,000 people in two days. The biological children of Mr. Rodriguez, aged 6 and 18 months, were spared abuse, but as far back as last summer, Nixzmary and three siblings, 5, 6, and 9 years old, were tied to the chair, gagged with duct tape, and beaten with rulers, blocks of wood and fists by both parents, prosecutors said. The top charge against both parents is second-degree murder, which has a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison. The formal charges against the parents, Cesar Rodriguez and Nixzaliz Santiago, were filed as the mayor defended his child welfare chief and as a second wave of mourners shuffled through a wake that drew more than 1,000 people in two days. Prosecutors accused Mr. Rodriguez and Ms. Santiago of maintaining an improvised torture chamber of fetid mattresses, a soiled litter box and a wooden chair tied to a broken radiator. He screamed at the children to know if Nixzmary was responsible. After he beat her, dunked her head under water and threw her on the floor in the so-called dirty room, Nixzmary moaned in pain.