Stepdad arrested after girl, 3, dies

EAST TREMONT (WABC) -- Police arrested the stepfather of a 3-year-old girl in the Bronx after her death was ruled a homicide.

*/India Durant*/ was discovered unconscious and pronounced dead at /*St. Barnabus Hospital*/.

"My granddaughter was beaten to death, beaten to death," grandmother Sharon Eaddy said. "Can you imagine how a 3-year-old can endure this kind of pain? It's just unbelievable."

Police say the incident appears to be a tragic case of child abuse after the medical examiner ruled that India died of blunt force trauma to the chest and other internal injuries.

"I couldn't sleep all night, picturing that in my mind," Eaddy said. "This man or this woman constantly beating my 3-year-old granddaughter in the stomach, in the torso area, to death."

The stepfather, identified as 27-year-old Kenneth Williams, is the one called 911 to report that the girl was unconscious inside the apartment. He apparently told police she had fallen out of a chair, but the medical examiner said the girl's injuries were inconsistent with that type of fall.

Eaddy says she is mad at the girl's mother for leaving the child alone with Williams. Meanwhile, India's real dad says he warned Williams to keep his hands off his daughter.

"You do not touch her," Marquis Eaddy said. "And he told me...'Alright if that's what you want, I will never touch your child.'"

When Marquis Eaddy got word his daughter was dead, he rushed to the hospital to say goodbye.

"The last time I actually get to see my daughter, I get to hold her lifeless body," he said. "It hurts. I haven't cried since I was about 12 years old. I'm 28 now, and I finally shed a tear."

Now, the Eaddys want justice.

"They need to pay," Sharon Eaddy said. "Nobody should get away with killing a little baby. Nobody."

A makeshift memorial was set up in front of the building on Southern Boulevard in the /*East Tremont*/ section.

Crime scene investigators were on the scene, gathering evidence.

Williams is charged with 2nd Degree Murder, Manslaughter, Assault, and Reckless Endangerment.

Get more New York News »

new york city, bronx, east tremont, child abuse, child death, new york news, anthony johnson

• Comment Now
• Email
• Print
• Report a typo
•