By: Dovesblood
For those of you who are wondering who I am, who is Dovesblood? here's a short synopsis of who I am and how I came to document Nixzmary Brown's story.
First and foremost, I'm a supporter of Nixzmary Brown. I attended her stepfather, Cesar Rodriguez's, murder trial everyday for 3 months. I attended a half a year's worth of pre-trials for Nixzmary's mother, Nixzaliz Santiago. During these pre-trials I was the only member of the public to show up! I also attended Nixzaliz Santiago's 5 week murder trial on a daily basis. I was a witness to the testimony of Nixzmary Brown's torture death.
MY CONTRIBUTIONS TO NIXZMARY'S STORY ARE:
1) Complete coverage of Nixzmary Brown's mother's pre-trials and trial.
2) Exclusive pictures of the inside of Nixzmary Brown's apartment!
3) A complete biography of Nixzmary Brown's life from the time that she was born up until her untimely death.
My coverage of Nixzaliz Santiago's pre-trial and trial: Everything spoken in the courtroom from the beginning of the day all the way to the end of the day, everyday, I documented. Alot of the pre-trials were never covered by the newspapers. Reporters were in the room but articles were never written. My coverage is the only documented source, (aside from court transcripts which would cost you a fortune to purchase) of what went on in the room. You can read about what the papers never wrote about. In reference to the trial, the media coverage was incomplete and that's putting it mildly. There were topics discussed in the room that the media never covered. They only covered the main points for each day. My coverage includes every single topic discussed in the room, in chronological order. You can view my complete coverage of Nixzaliz Santiago's pre-trials and trial in the INDEX of this website.
Exclusive photos I took of the inside of Nixzmary Brown's apartment: On the third anniversary of Nixzmary's murder, I went to her apartment in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. The apartment was abandoned. I took photographs of everyroom in the apartment including the bathroom where the fatal blow to the head was inflicted, her bedroom where she was held prisoner and the children's room where she ultimately died in. This is the first time that pictures of the inside of Nixzmary's apartment are being made available to the public. If you'd like, you can view the photos HERE
My Nixzmary Brown biography: Prior to the biography that I wrote about Nixzmary, The Short, Sad Life Of Nixzmary Brown, there was no one written source where people could read about Nixzmary's life, from her birth in Connecticut all the way up to her death in Brooklyn, New York. People would have to piece together different bits of information from various newspaper articles to try and construct what her life was like. My bio. puts it all in one place. One stop shopping, if you will.
HOW I CAME TO DOCUMENT NIXZMARY'S STORY:
At first I did not set out to document this story. It happened quite by accident. Here's how: I had been crying over the death of Little Nixzmary every single day. It got to the point where I couldn't even hear the name, "Nixzmary", without breaking down into tears. I've heard that others also have experienced that, where even the mention of the name, "Nixzmary", causes them to break down. At the trial, a supporter named Khadija, told me the same thing, that she too would cry in the beginning at the very mention of the name. I remember once, I was on a Greyhound bus and some people on the bus were talking about the case. They said her name. I sat there, unable to escape and took a deep breath because I knew what was going to happen. I turned my head away and sure enough I started to tear up. I tried to hold the tears back as best I could. So it was getting to the point where I was crying everyday and I said to myself that if I'm this effected by the Nixzmary Brown story, then when it starts, I should just go and be there.
When I first started attending Cesar Rodriguez's murder trial, I was not taking notes or memorizing what was being said. I simply wanted to be in the courtroom to show my support for Little Nixzmary and hear about her life and what happened to her.
In February of 2008, the defense's Medical Examiner, Dr. Charles Wetli, took the stand. Wetli testified that in his opinion Nixzmary Brown was NOT malnourished. As you can imagine this was hotly contested by the lead D.A., Ama Dwimoh (ja-mo). The two of them were really going at it. At one point, Wetli made some diagnosis about Nixzmary's medical condition when she was ALIVE and Dwimoh said, "Objection!!! He works on DEAD bodies not LIVE children"!!! The whole courtroom started to laugh. Wetli just sat there stone faced staring at her. Let just say, he did not look amused. You have to remember that Nixzmary Brown was only 36 pounds when she died, the weight of a 4 year old.
Through out the day, graphic pictures of the crime scene were shown. These pictures are really haunting. I find them to be more disturbing than the autopsy photos. The main crime scene photo showed Little Nixzmary lying dead on a wooden floor. Her complexion is a ghastly white color. She's naked from the waist up and wearing only a pair of red sweatpants. Under her head is bundled a lavender top and red sweatshirt. Her head is turned to her left. Her hair is pulled back into a ponytail. She's got two black eyes, raccoon like, that encircle her entire sockets. Her face is completely sunken in from being emaciated. Her mouth is slightly open. Her shoulder bones are jutting out and her hip bone is sticking out (similar to an Aushwitz victim) She's so skinny that you can see the bones right through her chest. Her body is only fitting into a little more than half the sweatpants. The sweatpants are hanging off of her, loosely, to the left. Her right hand is lying on her chest and her left hand is sprawled out onto the floor. Her right leg is bent, like an "L"shape so the bottom of her foot is facing her left leg. The photo looks more like a corpse that was lying on the floor dead for days instead of a child that had just died.
So throughout the day, a debate was going on as to whether or not Nixzmary Brown was actually malnourished. (as if you couldn't tell from just one look at those photos!) When court recessed for lunch, I decided to stay behind in the waiting room right outside of the courtroom. Here's how it's set up: Judge Hall's courtroom was up on the 21st floor. You have to go down a long hallway and her courtroom is the last room on the left hand side, right before a waiting room with benches. At the very end of the hall is the waiting room. It's sort of like a thermometer. It's long and at the end is a circle (the hallway and the waiting room)So everyone had left to go to lunch. The halls were completely empty. The only people in the waiting room with me were a reporter from Newsday and the sketch artist, Marilyn Church. Just the three of us. Marilyn was sitting on the left hand side of the waiting room. She was putting some finishing touches on her sketch and pulled out an apple to eat. The reporter from Newsday was sitting on a window sill looking out the window while eating. He was on the same side of the room with Marilyn. I was sitting on the right hand side of the room, on a bench, closest to the window, reading.
About a half an hour into the lunch break, Cesar's lawyer, Jeffrey Schwartz, and his partner, Barry Deonarine came out of a side room into the hallway. The two had been working in there during lunch. The halls were completely empty but unbeknownst to them, the three of us were positioned quietly in the waiting room, out of sight. (Marilyn and the reporter on the far left of the room and myself on the far right) Jeff Schwartz said to his partner, Barry Deonarine, "do you have to eat or....." Deonarine quickly replies, "no, no, I have to eat"! to which Schwartz replied in a mocking, smart ass voice, "maaaal-nu-triiiition"! The two men laughed and walked down the hallway to get their food! I couldn't believe it!! I immediately got up from my seat and went to the center of the room to look into the hall. I wanted to run down the hall and kill them! I looked at Marilyn and the reporter. "Did you hear that"???!!! "Did you hear that"???!!! I said to them in an angry, disbelieving tone of voice. The two acknowledged that they heard it. Marilyn then shook her head back and forth. I looked down the hallway. The two were already to the end of it. I shouted something but I'm not even sure that they heard it. The reporter from Newsday also shook his head and said that he couldn't believe that Schwartz said that. We all started talking about what just happened. Afterwards, I walked over to the window sill on my side of the room. From the 21st. floor you could see the City below and the Brooklyn Bridge. As I stood there, looking out the window, I started thinking about the grave with no grass on it that I had just visited. The Bratz doll that I took there for her that I know she'll never play with. I thought about the beautiful little girl in the Power Ranger costume who was reduced to looking like a skeleton in those photos. In my mind I could hear Schwartz's voice mocking her. I felt a wetness on my cheek.
After the lunch hour was over and people were sitting in the courtroom waiting for the proceedings to start, I approached the NY Daily News reporter, Scott Shifrel, and told him what had happened over the lunch break. He told me that he has heard Schwartz joke around plenty of other times about this case. He mentioned one incident where Schwartz said that cat food has calories in it. (Cesar would lock Nixzmary up in a spare room and leave her nothing to eat but cat food) He asked me if the Newsday reporter was going to be using it. I said I didn't know. Shifrel walked over to talk to the Newsday reporter and the sketch artist to confirm the story. Afterwards, he told me that if he didn't hear it, that he can't really use it.
Inside I was outraged that the reporter wouldn't be using it. I thought, people need to know what this attorney said. I remembered that underneath all of the online articles, that there was a section for blogger comments. It occured to me that maybe I could leave a comment under the article about what really happened today. I had never blogged on a newspaper article in my life but I knew that it was the only way to get the story out there. I wanted people to know what really happened today and not some censored newspaper version! Most people get their news from the physical newspaper. I'm guessing that even less get it from the internet and probably even less people read those blogs. Even though I wouldn't be reaching as many people the way I would if the incident were described in the actual article, I'd still be reaching some people. I decided that if the incident couldn't be in the article, that it would be underneath it (in the comment section). I was a little scared but I decided that I had to do it.
I didn't want to use my real name so I had to come up with a name for myself. I wanted my name to be representative of Nixzmary Brown and what happened to her. A dove is a symbol of peace and all children are peaceful. Blood represents violence, that something awful just happened. So the "dove" represents Nixzmary and the "blood" represents something violent happening to her. Hence, my new name was, "Dovesblood". When the blood of a dove has been spilled, when peace has been interrupted, only violence can ensue afterwards. Conversely, in Wicca, the blood of a dove is used in love spells as an ingredient. So Dove's blood also means, "love".
After I figured out how to get online, an email address, passwords etc. (this was a whole new world for me) I wrote briefly about the incident. Afterwards, I realized that there was alot that was going on in the room that the newspaper reporter was leaving out. I decided that I would pick up where the reporter left off and write what he failed to write about. Back during Cesar's trial, my blogs were not that detailed. Perhaps a paragraph or two.
When Nixzmary's mother's trial came around, knowing how inept the media was at reporting what went on in the room, I decided I would document the whole trial in excruciating detail. Every topic covered in the courtroom would be written about so in this way a record would be made for all those who cared to read it. Granted not everyone wants to read every single detail of a murder trial and would rather read just the main happenings for the day. But, for those that are deeply effected by the murder of Nixzmary Brown, every single detail, every topic, is important. If it were your child, wouldn't you want to know everything that went on in the room? Since no one else was doing it, I took it upon myself to document history. This trial really is a part of child abuse history. I don't know short hand so I wasn't able to record every word said. I did my best and I tried to write as fast as I could. In essence, my work is as close as you're going to get to the events that unfolded in that courtroom, short of actually ordering the minutes for the trial which would cost thousands.
Only two people are in possession of detailed notes for Cesar and Nixzaliz's trials. Pastor Greene for Cesar's trial and myself, Dovesblood, for Nixzaliz's trial. At Cesar's trial, a middle aged black woman named, Pastor Greene, attended everyday and took copious notes of everything. She is the only civilian with detailed notes of Cesar's trial. For Nixzaliz's trial, I, Dovesblood, am the only person that has detailed notes from her pre-trials all the way up to the end of her trial. Pastor Greene showed up at Nixzaliz Santiago's first pre-trial but after that she never came again. I heard that she was having some personal problems. Don't know of what nature. There were rumors that she was planning on writing a book but I don't know how true that is. If she is, it would be a good thing. I don't know what ever became of Pastor Greene's notes or what she plans on doing with them. As for my notes, I put them all up on the internet so people could learn about Nixzmary's trial. First on newspaper blogs and then I transferred the notes to this website.
In closing, let me just say for the record, that I hold no ill will towards any of the defense attorneys in this case: Jeff Schwartz, Kathleen Mullin, Barry Deonarine or Sammy Sanchez. Granted, what Schwartz said was in bad taste, and that's putting it mildly!, but I still understand that defense attorneys are just doing their jobs. In this country, we don't just arrest people and put them in jail without a trial. The United States Constitution says everyone is entitled to a lawyer and a fair trial. You can't say that you believe in the Constitution, that everyone is entitled to a lawyer, but then jump up and down and start screaming when an actual lawyer comes along to do the job! I always hear people say, "what kind of person would defend a baby killer"? Well, what kind of a person would agree for a baby killer to be defended? Isn't the person who agrees for the killer to be defended, just as bad as the lawyer doing the defense? The fact of the matter is, if you say you believe in the Constitution, that everyone is entitled to a lawyer, then YOU are in fact, agreeing that baby killers should be defended by lawyers. As such, you shouldn't have a problem with the defense lawyers doing their jobs. I remember during Cesar's trial, I hated Jeff Schwartz, just for the fact that he was Cesar's lawyer. I understand the hatred because I felt it myself. I would not even get into the elevator with Jeff Schwartz. I would wait for the next one to come, even if it took a year because it was the end of the day! Now that it's all over and I can look at things objectively, I see that the lawyers were just doing their jobs.
Maybe everything happens for a reason? If Jeff Schwartz hadn't made that stupid remark, I would have never started blogging, I would never have started to document the trial and this website would not even exist. If he hadn't made that remark, people would have no way of learning, in detail, about Nixzmary's life, via my notes. Maybe things do happen for a reason?
If you have some time, visit my other rwebsite at:
CHILD ABUSE HEADLINES.COM
So that, my friends, is how "Dovesblood" was born. In Brooklyn Supreme Court, up on the 21st floor, in the waiting room at the end of the hall. Created to exact vengeance. Born from the blood of Nixzmary Brown.
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