A Bronx mom said she beat her 5-year-old son to death because he broke the television while playing Nintendo Wii, prosecutors said Monday.
Kim Crawford, 21, smacked Jamar Johnson in his back and stomach on June 13 "harder than I've ever hit him," she told cops.
Crawford watched him vomit and complain of agonizing pain for five days as his internal injuries got worse. She never took him to the hospital because she feared getting arrested, she told investigators.
"I was worried they'd see the bruises and I'd get in trouble," she told cops.
Jamar died of an infection to his lacerated pancreas and intestine at Montefiore Medical Center late Friday.
Prosecutors charged Crawford with murder and manslaughter. She was ordered held without bond Monday.
"I can't believe this," Jamar's dad said outside court.
The petite single mom told cops several different stories about how Jamar was injured before finally admitting the truth, prosecutors said.
First, she claimed he simply got sick, went to sleep and never woke up, prosecutors said. She then claimed he fell while playing in the park and injured himself.
After hours of questioning, she finally admitted becoming enraged at Jamar when he told her he broke the television, prosecutors said.
"I hit Jamar twice in the back and twice in the stomach," she told cops.
On Friday night Crawford "held Jamar's hand and it was cold," she told cops. "He wasn't moving."
Crawford's lawyer, Camille Abate, said the mom should not have been charged with murder.
"The facts do not establish at all that this mother tried to kill her child," Abate said. "I have no idea whether hitting someone with their hand causes these kinds of injuries. It's clear that for two days she was worked over by police."
Jamar's heartbroken family called his death "inexcusable."
"Whether or not she did it on purpose doesn't matter, because my beautiful grandson is gone and he's not coming back," said Jamar's grandmother, Betsy Johnson. "It's a tragedy. It's inexcusable."
Crawford has previous arrests for drugs and assault, police sources said, and a long history of domestic incidents with the boy's father.
Police were called for domestic incidents between the pair nine times since 2006, sources said. Crawford had an open warrant for violating probation at the time of her arrest.
In a separate case, a Bronx man was charged Monday with killing his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter, police said. Edgar Algarin, 26, apparently exploded in anger because Enidaliz Ortiz-Encarnacion wouldn't eat, sources said. He told police he punched the girl in the back, sources said.
The city Medical Examiner's office said the girl was choked and beaten in the upper torso.
Algarin, who has no previous arrest record, was charged with murder and manslaughter. The child was in cardiac arrest when an ambulance arrived at the family's Mott Haven apartment early Saturday. She died a short time later at Lincoln Hospital.
Sources said the girl's mother was away on business and that Algarin may have been angry that he was forced to babysit.
