Now, it’s murder
LITTLE NYLAH LOSES FIGHT FOR LIFE
THE HEARTLESS dad accused of beating his 16-month-old daughter into a coma on Father’s Day will likely face murder charges after the girl died Friday.
Little Nylah Lewis, who suffered multiple skull fractures and bleeding on the brain, died at 10:40 a.m. to end a courageous five-day fight for her life, said a statement from Maimonides Medical Center.
“They took my baby away,” the child’s sobbing mother Tammy Lewis said a short time later at her mom’s Brooklyn home. The mom was too devastated to say anything more.
Imprisoned father Shaquan Taylor, 19, already charged with felony assault and acting in a manner injurious to a child younger than 17, will undoubtedly face a stiffer count.
“We will seek to upgrade the charges in the grand jury,” said a spokeswoman for the Brooklyn district attorney.
Nylah’s aunt Christine Munford recalled the little girl as a source of joy — and reviled the jailed father as a source of pain.
“He’s a bastard and he shouldn’t have done that to his own blood,” said Munford. “He better get what he deserves.”
The little girl died as the city medical examiner was testifying before the grand jury — with Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Frederick Arriaga then doubling Taylor’s bail to $500,000.
Taylor, who did not attend the hearing, is due back in court July 17.
Nylah “was always happy,” said Munford. “She was funny. She would make this sound — like ‘grrr’ — and she’d always make us laugh. I miss her.”
The battered girl’s family was “sad and depressed” by the death. “It’s just really, really hard,” said Munford. Taylor, who marked his birthday Tuesday in jail, was also accused of beating the girl’s mother when she appeared at his Coney Island apartment to find Nylah barely breathing.
Lewis grabbed the child and bolted from the apartment, but Taylor ran her down outside the building and beat her as she clutched Nylah tight, police said.
“He took my baby from me,” wrote Tammy in a Facebook post Friday morning after her daughter died. “She’s gone.”
In an exclusive Daily News interview on Rikers Island, Taylor insisted that Nylah was injured in a fall.
“I didn’t do nothing,” he insisted. “I didn’t do nothing at all ... Do you know what it’s like to be here for something I didn’t do?”
Both doctors and prosecutors said her fatal injuries were inconsistent with his story. Taylor did acknowledge beating Lewis during the Sunday confrontation.
In several Facebook posts, Taylor said that he wanted Lewis to get an abortion after learning about her pregnancy.