Victim put on trial in N.Y. child-death case

During earlier testimony by another detective about the crime scene, the defense sought to emphasize an odd piece of evidence: a tiny jar containing a murky, brownish substance, discovered on a messy bedroom dresser. Investigators have said the substance appeared to be human tissue, which the mother claimed to have been given by the hospital after she had a miscarriage.

"It was explained to me that it was a fetus," the NYPD investigator said.

Speaking to reporters, Schwartz called that "bombshell" testimony that supported the theory that a demented Nixzaliz Santiago had preserved the medical remnants of a recent miscarriage. The mother "blamed Nixzmary for the death of her (unborn) child," he said, and suggested she avenged the death with the fatal beating.

Schwartz's brash approach has at times raised eyebrows in the courtroom. But the 45-year-old has brushed aside the criticism by saying that someone has to represent — and try to win acquittals — for those accused of the most heinous crimes. He insisted he has never meant "to imply even for a millisecond that (Nixzmary) deserved or brought this on herself."

Rodriguez takes the stand
Earlier this week, jurors heard the defendant recount his stepdaughter's last night in a calm voice.

Nixzmary had pilfered the yogurt from the refrigerator and damaged a computer printer, Rodriguez said in a taped interview played by prosecutors. As punishment, he stuck her head under a running bathtub faucet.

"I took her and threw some cold water on her ... to make her think," he said.

Investigators suspect the girl's head was smashed against the faucet — something her stepfather denied doing. But in the same tape he conceded, "Sometimes she'd get me real angry, and I used to just throw her on the floor. ... She was always lying to me about everything."

At another point, Rodriguez paused at length when confronted with a Polaroid of Nixzmary's face and asked to explain why she had two black eyes.

"She managed to do that to herself," he finally responded.

His last memory of Nixzmary alive he said was breathing heavily and moaning on the floor of her room. He never called for help, he added, even though, "I'd never seen her more pale."

Some watching in the jury of 10 women and two men shook their heads, held their hands to their mouths and wiped away tears. When the courtroom lights were turned on, a court officer passed them tissues.

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