Nabe on edge
Upset to see Bx. tot killer back after 2½ yrs.
MOTHERS IN the Bronx neighborhood where a day care worker beat a baby boy to death said Sunday they were nervous to learn the killer is out of prison after less than three years.
Athena Skeeter, 42, is again walking the streets around Claremont Village despite slamming 20-month-old Cardell Williamson on the floor, stepping on his stomach and then putting him in steaming water on Aug. 22, 2014, while he was under her care.
The punishment for the heinous killing troubled Tiffany Jones, 28, who watched her two young children play on College Ave. by E. 170th St., near where the tragedy occurred.
“I disagree on her being free. She should have gotten more years,” Jones said. “She killed a child . . . That doesn’t sit well with me at all. I wouldn’t trust her with my kids. I do feel less safe knowing she’s out. I have deep concerns about that.”
Skeeter served two years and seven months of her four-year manslaughter sentence before being released for good behavior on April 17.
Iselma Mejia, 38, said that Skeeter shouldn’t be allowed around kids.
“I hope that she learned from her mistake. But I wouldn’t let her care for my children,” said Mejia, who has four kids between 3 and 9 years old.
“It’s knowing she did.”
Little Cardell’s father, Carlyle Williamson, had earlier told the Daily News he was struggling to deal with Skeeter’s presence back in the neighborhood.
She has relatives in the area of the apartment where she operated a day care despite a prior allegation of violence against a child that state investigators deemed unsubstantiated. scary what
“I thought she was going to be in for another year and a half,” Williamson, 58, said. “She walks through the neighborhood as if she’s President.”
A deli worker, Salvador Tejada, 58, remembered that Skeeter “always looked a little angry” before the tragedy.
“I was surprised to learn she was out already. It was shocking to learn, especially when it comes to the life of a child,” Tejada said.
Others in working-class neighborhood were more sympathetic, saying that Skeeter had paid her debt to society.
“It’s always sad when it comes to the death of children. A life is a life. But she did her time. How many times are you gonna beat somebody for a crime after being convicted?” Sidney James, 74, asked.
“It’s a hard thing. But we have to move on.” the
Princes Gaines, 36, said Skeeter had raised him from when he was 3 to his early teens.
“She never hurt a child, or an animal,” Gaines said. “She raised me. I mean, she spanked me sometimes. But she never got out of hand. If I see her, I’d give her a hug.”
Skeeter could not be reached. Her distant cousin previously told The News she had the right to go wherever she liked.
Many residents of the neighborhood said it had seen its fair share of trouble due to a high number of homeless shelters and street gangs. In December, a 27-year-old described by police as a Bloods gang member was shot and killed less than a halfmile from where Skeeter ran her deadly day care.
Residents shook their heads in frustration when asked about Cardell’s killing — a tragedy that broke their hearts above all others. The super of Skeeter’s vacant apartment said many preferred not to talk about it.
“Nobody lives there. Not sure anybody wants to,” the super said.