‘A very beautiful beginning for us’
Girl whose mom, aunt and sister were slain is adopted by grandmother
NEW HAVEN — Sevenyear-old Alivia took control at her own adoption proceedings Friday, declaring of her grandmother before they officially started: “This lady right here is the most special lady I ever saw and I love her.” x There wasn’t a stiff upper lip in the room as Alivia elaborated, telling well-wishers that — among other things — “every day and night” she and her grandmother pray to God and he blesses them with the Holy Spirit.
It was National Adoption Day and there were 55 adoption ceremonies throughout the state.
Alivia, of West Haven and now a second-grader at a New Haven charter school, officially was adopted by her grandmother who has cared for her since 2017 after Alivia’s mother was shot to death in front of her in a domestic violence case, along with Alivia’s sister, My’Jaeaha Richardson, 9. Alivia was only 21⁄2.
Friday was a glorious day, too, for grandmother Corrinna Martin, who refers to her granddaughter “the wind beneath her wings.”
Martin not only had endured the death of her daughter, Alivia’s mother, Chaquinequea Brodie, and granddaughter My’Jaeah in
Waterbury, but four years earlier she tragically lost another daughter, Alyssiah Marie Wiley, to domestic violence in a highprofile killing. Wiley was Alivia’s aunt.
The official road to adoption — one that will give Martin the ease to raise Alivia with parental rights — was preceded by a long, protracted custody battle with Alivia’s biological father, who hadn’t been active in her young life, Martin said. His parental rights were terminated.
“This is a roller coaster of emotions. As excited as we are about it, it really has that dark cloud — this is the silver lining in that dark cloud,” Martin said in an interview prior to the hearing. “This is a very beautiful beginning for us.”
The grandmother/ daughter duo adore each other and have a close relationship. At times it’s been tough for Alivia, as she has dealt with the PTSD from what she witnessed.
Martin bubbles over Alivia with the pride of a mom and grandma rolled into one.
“She’s just the most lovable, very sweet, bright, charismatic child,” Martin said in an interview. “She’s one of those children you instantly fall in love with. … She completes me.”
That charisma was apparent to all at Friday’s hearing, held virtually between a brightly decorated adoption room at the state Department of Children and Families and a courtroom, both in New Haven.
There were profoundly touching remarks by DCF officials, social workers who worked with the family, and even lawyers. Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz and DCF Commissioner Vannessa L. Dorantes were there ,as well, but it was Alivia who stole everyone’s heart.
When someone commented on the cuteness of the matching outfits Alivia and Martin were wearing — a sundress with a turquoise top, pink floral bottom and a pastel pink vest — Alivia said, “We take care of each other. It doesn’t matter how we look. We don’t fight.”
Later, as the proceeding became more formal, Alivia told Judge Bernadette Conway, “I want this woman right here to be my mom. This woman I know to be the right mom for me.”
As Martin began to speak and slowed because the emotions were overwhelming, Conway told her to “take your time and live in the moment,” and that it was emotional for everyone.
Martin said she’s “not replacing” her daughter by adopting Alivia, but rather continuing her parenting to “guide and direct her.”
She also graciously thanked the officials present for giving the adoption special emphasis, as the opportunity to be showcased doesn’t come up often in “the Black and brown community.”
Martin also thanked all those who helped.
“Without the village, this moment right here could have been completely different,” Martin said, thanking the social workers and others for treating the family with respect.
Bysiewicz, in her remarks earlier at the hearing, said Martin is an “incredible” person and praised her for establishing a domestic violence awareness group — Mothers of Victim Equality — in the face of her personal tragedy. The group provides education, advocacy and engagement as a proactive approach to ending domestic violence, especially in communities of color.
Those listening remotely to the proceeding were invited to speak and one of them was Alivia’s former teacher, the principal and others who knew her at her school in West Haven, where Alivia attended kindergarten through first grade.
“We have a big box of tissues,” the school group’s spokeswoman told Alivia. “We’re so excited for this adoption to happen. We think about you all the time. We’re so proud of you.”
Martin interjected and said Alivia has “impacted so many people” and the school was “part of our village.”
“This is an adoption hearing none of us are going to forget,” Conway said at the end of the proceeding.
“You have made us far more appreciative of everything that’s good in life.”
Martin said in the interview before the proceeding that Alivia is a voracious reader and talented artist with an eye for detail. She’s also a kind girl “who would give anyone the shirt off her back,” Martin said.
“She’s one of those children you’re proud to have,” Martin said. “She’s the wind beneath my wings.”
Martin said Alivia calls her “grandmama” and she’s leaving it up to her what to call her, as long as it isn’t “Corrinna.”
Martin said Alivia is also “resilient,” as she watched her mother being killed and, “She came out victorious wanting to do better.”
At a time when Alivia was struggling with the tragedy, Martin recalled her saying, “Grandma, I just want to be good.”
“I draw strength from her. … If I’m having a bad day she says, ‘grandma, ‘I love you,’” Martin said, and she’s thankful that all Alvia went through didn’t impair her “ability to love.”
Martin noted her youngest biological child is 24, and she’s going back to the mother role at 50 —
but with “more wisdom and experience.”
When the Register interviewed Martin in 2020, she spoke of a “mountain of grief” so high after losing her daughters and a granddaughter to domestic violence that all she could do was “tunnel through” rather than get over the mountain. She had helped raise that granddaughter.
Martin said she’s still tunneling, but, “the healing journey isn’t as difficult as it was.”
The men charged in both of the domestic violence cases were convicted in the killings.
As a result of Wiley’s death — the first daughter killed — Martin founded M.O.V.E. Inc.
Brodie, Alivia’s mom, had helped Martin launch and run the organization in memory of her sister
Martin’s case was so profound and the organization so powerful in the community that it was the subject of “Impact of Murder” on Investigation Discovery. The episode is titled, “There’s No Winning In Murder.”
Wiley, 20, a “vibrant, vivacious” college student, was killed by a longtime boyfriend as she tried to break up with him.
Twenty-seven days after Wiley was last seen in
April 2013, following an intense search, her partial remains were found in a wooded area at the end of Quarry Road in Trumbull, a mile-and-a-half from her longtime boyfriend’s Bridgeport home. Her boyfriend since high school, Jermaine Richards, a licensed practical nurse, was sentenced to 60 years in prison with no parole after a third trial.
Wiley, who aspired to become a psychiatrist, was the “peacemaker in the family and had a heart of gold,” Martin has said.
In August 2017, just before the third trial in Wiley’s killing was to begin, Brodie, 29, and My’Jaeaha were killed in Waterbury by Brodie’s live-in boyfriend. Alivia was found screaming outside, but was physically uninjured.
Anthony Rutherford, 28, at the time, is serving 80 years for the killings, Martin later would learn her daughter and granddaughter were tortured before they were killed, adding to her pain.
Martin said out of her four daughters, Brodie was the “the strong one” in the family with a “smile that would light up a room.”
Alivia has a purse with an “M” on it in memory of her sister My’Jaeaha.