This story is a follow up to these stories below over the last few weeksKyle's father, Elliot Smith. Brooklyn prosecutors hit Cheatham and Martin with manslaughter, assault and endangerment charges. The two face up to 25 years in prison if convicted.
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Sad farewell to 3-year-old abuse victim Kyle Smith
Sad farewell to 3-year-old abuse victim Kyle Smith
BY MELISSA GRACE and DAVE GOLDINER
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Kyle Smith lay in a tiny coffin surrounded by stuffed monkeys Monday as friends and family finally got a chance to pay their last respects to the abuse victim.
The 3-year-old was heavily made up, but mourners could clearly see the effect of the vicious beatings police say he got from his guardians.
"These people deserve to rot for what they did to that little boy," said Kathleen Young, 55, a family friend. "You could see the abuse. I don't know how the bastards could torture him like that."
The boy's biological mother, Eugenia Holmes, 24, wept and hugged her godmother outside the upper East Side funeral home where mourners gathered. His father, Elliot Smith, 25, also attended.
Kyle wore a white baseball cap, and his body was framed by giant bouquets of white and pink roses in the white satin-lined coffin. A stuffed purple monkey wearing a New York Jets jersey and a pink monkey sat next to him. Placards with baby photos and rest in peace messages were set by the coffin.
The boy's body lay in the morgue for a week while the parents, who gave him up in life, feuded over funeral arrangements. They finally agreed to bury him tomorrow.
"It's important that everybody is together. ... We're trying to keep everything settled," said Elliot Smith.
The boy's guardians, Nymeen Cheatham, 30, and her boyfriend, Lemar Martin, 25, admitted beating Kyle in their Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, apartment June 6, cops said. Brooklyn prosecutors hit Cheatham and Martin with manslaughter, assault and endangerment charges. The two face up to 25 years in prison if convicted.
Holmes allowed Cheatham to care for Kyle in August 2007 and moved to South Carolina with her father to try to kick a drug habit.
Cheatham applied to the courts for guardianship in October, and the Administration for Children's Services gave her home a clean bill of health. ACS failed to learn that Cheatham had lost custody of her four natural children and little brother in Texas in 2003 because of neglect, records show.
Family friend Donna Cotrel called Cheatham and Martin "demons" and said prosecutors should have charged them with murder.
"Monsters do this. Human beings don't do this to babies," Cotrel said. "It is horrifying."
Young defended Kyle's parents, saying they never suspected Cheatham could hurt the defenseless boy. "We thought she loved him," Young said.
Original Article-
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