The 4-year-old boy who was found dead in a Times Square apartment with burns and cuts on his body had been "tortured" and starved for the last three weeks of his life, including being forced to stand on an apartment balcony in his underwear in near-zero temperatures, prosecutors said Friday.
The child, Myls Dobson, had been left with a babysitter after his father was arrested in December. That woman, 27-year-old Kryzie King, was arraigned Friday on assault and reckless endangerment charges.
At her arraignment, prosecutors said he had been burned, beaten and cut all over his body, tortured for the three weeks that he had been in her care.
He had not been fed in two weeks, and was forced out in the cold the week he died, prosecutors said.
King's attorney said the investigation is still going but his client "must be presumed innocent." He said she has been "depressed and sullen."
Earlier in the day Friday, the child's mother, who did not have custody of her son, wept at a news conference as she said she had only wanted the best for him.
"I always wanted the best for my son, my baby," said Ashley Dobson as she cried at a news conference.
Dobson had been trying to get her son back for weeks, her representatives said. A spokesman said a Family Court judge gave custody to his father in 2012 because she was living in a shelter and was not able to care for him financially.
Officers found the boy when they responded to a 911 call at a building on West 48th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue around 11 a.m. Wednesday.
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His mother last saw him in November, her lawyers said.
Sources close to the investigation told NBC 4 New York the boy had been known to child welfare authorities since 2011, when a neglect case was brought against his mother.
The child was living with his grandmother when his father, Okee Wade, petitioned for custody of the child, the sources said.
Wade was granted custody in August of 2012 but on the condition that child protective services visit the boy twice a month for one year. A warrant was issued for Wade's arrest following an racketeering indictment in June for allegedly siphoning money from bank accounts in Atlantic City.
Wade left his son in the custody of King on Dec. 18 and was shortly after arrested in New York and extradited to New Jersey, where he remains in custody, the sources said.
Myls had been with King since his father was jailed, investigators said.
The child welfare agency said Friday it was reviewing the case to learn what happened and what might have been done differently.
