NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — The parents of 4-year-old Jah’Meik Modlin, who starved to death in his Harlem apartment, were indicted in his murder and for the abuse of their three other children, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office announced on Wednesday.
“The death of Jah’Meik Modlin, an innocent four-year-old child, is a tragedy that has scarred this city. That he died a slow and painful death, starving alongside his older siblings, somehow isolated in the heart of Harlem, is a stain on our collective conscience,” said District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Nytavia Ragsdale, 26, and Laron Modlin, 25, are both charged with second-degree murder, four counts of assault, manslaughter criminally negligent homicide and four counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
According to court documents and statements, just after 7:40 p.m. on Oct. 13, Modlin called 911 and stated in substance that his son, Jah’Meik, was non-responsive. The child was transported to a local hospital and given end of life care until just before 6 a.m. the next morning, when he died.
Prosecutors allege that Ragsdale and Modlin actively starved their four children—Jah’Meik and three others aged 5, 6 and 7—for two years while purchasing food for themselves on a daily basis.
While the apartment had a working refrigerator with fresh produce, the appliance was turned with the door facing a wall so it could not be opened, and any cabinet containing food was zip tied shut, prosecutors said.
The district attorney’s office said that the children were found to be living in dire conditions in the family’s three-bedroom apartment, located on the sixth floor of 2484 Seventh Ave. near Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard.
One bedroom in the apartment was completely covered in feces, and the floor could not be seen through the amount of dirt and excrement in the room. The walls were smeared with feces to the approximate height of a child, prosecutors said, and the only items in the room were a mattress and a few pieces of broken furniture.
This room was the only of the three with a lock, and it had the mechanism on the outside, allowing someone to lock someone inside.
None of the other rooms had doorknobs.
At the time of his death, Jah’Meik was within less than 0% of the growth chat for children his age and had almost no body fat, weighing in at 19 pounds. He suffered from malnutrition, dehydration and starvation, prosecutors said.
The Rev. Al Sharpton held a prayer service and march last month for Jah'Meik, during which he committed to paying for the funeral and preach at it if that was desired by his extended family, in association with domestic violence awareness group WARM (We All Really Matter).
“We failed that child, every single last one of us, because it was something that somebody could have said, it was something that somebody could have seen,” WARM founder Stephanie McGraw said. “Two years and the baby starved of salvation. And we live in the richest country in the world.”
Jah’Meik and his siblings arrived at the hospital last month with layers of dirt on their skin and feces matted into their hair. None of the children had seen a doctor in over two years, and they were isolated from friends or family, prosecutors allege.
The three other children remain hospitalized for malnutrition, the district attorney’s office said. They displayed very limited fine motor skills and were incapable of holding utensils or feeding themselves, but as nutrients continue to be introduced, the abilities are returning.
“Today [Jah’Meik’s] parents are indicted for allegedly killing him through extreme physical neglect and persistent abuse with depraved indifference for his life,” Bragg said. “Our Child Abuse Bureau is working diligently to secure justice for Jah’Meik and to support his three siblings during this immensely difficult process.”
Bragg asked anyone who is aware of severe neglect or abuse to call 911 in an emergency, or to contact the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office at 212-335-4308.