BABY HOMICIDE
Sitter may face slay in 9-month-old’s death
A Queens baby-sitter could face upgraded criminal charges after the death of a 9-month-old boy allegedly abused while in her care was ruled a homicide, police said Thursday.
The tot died after his babysitter, herself the mother of a baby, assaulted him — and the case has been ruled a homicide, police said Thursday.
Little Veto Garcia suffered a seizure and began foaming at the mouth inside baby-sitter Ronita Singh’s South Ozone Park home back on June 14, 2018, authorities revealed Thursday.
Singh, 22, (photo) was charged two days later with having assaulted the baby, who died the day after her arrest. She was eventually released on $500,000 bail, records show.
On Thursday, authorities announced the death has been deemed a homicide.
The baby suffered injuries “consistent with abusive head trauma,” pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Shaun Rodgers told investigators after treating the boy at Cohen Children’s Medical Center, according to court papers. Veto died at that hospital after being transferred there from Jamaica Hospital.
Prosecutors say little Veto went into the seizure shortly after Singh picked the baby up from his mom in Kew Gardens Hills and drove him back to her place on 117th St. near Rockaway Blvd.
Prosecutors say Ronita Singh called her husband and the boy’s mother after the baby started shaking while sitting on a mat inside her home.
Singh’s husband Rajendra Singh told the Daily News Thursday that a desperate effort was made to resuscitate the boy after his seizure.
“We did everything, we tried,” the husband said Thursday. “I don’t know. It’s hard, it’s very hard. She was only babysitting him for a few weeks.”
Asked exactly what happened, Rajendra Singh provided no details, saying it was a long story.
His wife is no longer living with her husband due to an order of protection barring her from contact with her lone daughter in the wake of Veto’s death, neighbors said.
“She has a monitor on her ankle so she can’t stay here and she has to stay a certain distance away,” said neighbor Anita Massoom, 57. “I saw her the week before last. They were moving stuff and she was out in the road sitting in the car. I don’t think she was allowed to go in.”
Massoom recalled seeing EMTs carrying “a baby looking lifeless” from the Singh home last year.
It took nearly 11 months for the death to be ruled a homicide, leaving Ronita Singh in a precarious legal position. She is due back in court on June 7 and could face upgraded charges.