A Brooklyn brute confessed to savagely shaking his 2-year-old stepdaughter until her tiny body went limp, leaving the irreversibly injured child on life-support on Saturday.
Sobbing suspect David Adams was locked up in protective custody after a criminal complaint laid out the vicious details of his alleged assault on Thaiya Spruill-Smith.
The little girl’s crying ignited the stepfather’s rage on Wednesday, according to relatives. Assistant District Attorney Frank DeGaetano said the charges will likely be upgraded to homicide.
Adams told police that he lifted Thaiya up in the air and shook the toddler, “causing (her) head to rotate forward and back rapidly several times,” the complaint charged.
“Immediately after the above-described actions, (Adams) observed Thaiya Spruill-Smith’s body to go limp.”
The complaint, in addition to the attack that left the girl in a coma, charged Adams with two counts of assault, one count of reckless assault and endangering the welfare of a child between Oct. 10 and 20.
Prosecutors declined to provide the details behind the earlier assault charges, but the complaint described similar shakings of the child. Adams, 25, was due back in court Monday.
The stunning accusations were further complicated Saturday as Thaiya’s mother and father feuded over donating the little girl’s organs.
Mom Teoka Spruill, who wants doctors to take the organs, also defended her accused husband — and said she was seven months pregnant with the suspect’s baby.
“As if this situation wasn’t enough,” said Thaiya’s visibly upset dad, Terrell Smith. “I just can’t believe this.”
A mediator from the city Administration for Children’s Services may be summoned to help the parents reach an agreement.
Smith, even before the charges were announced, accused Adams of repeatedly beating his daughter, leaving her with a bloody lip, welts and bruises.
He claimed that the court awarded his ex-wife custody of Thaiya despite the abuse.
“I kept showing them picture after picture of marks, of signs of abuse, but she got custody,” the dad said.
The toddler’s grandmother choked up Saturday as the family waited to decide on taking her off life support. Doctors told the parents Friday night that Thaiya was brain-dead, with no hope of recovery.
“My granddaughter was the most wonderful, beautiful, smart, intelligent, opinionated, gorgeous girl — and she speaks her mind,” said Diane Howard, 65, pastor of the Grace Saving Church of Gold and Christ in Queens.
“She’s a smart baby,” the maternal grandmother said. “She’s a good baby. And we all loved her.”
Teoka Spruill dialed 911 on Thursday morning after her daughter had trouble breathing. The cops were called when doctors at the hospital discovered bruises on the little girl’s body.
“I would love for Thai’s organs to be donated, but her father doesn’t want that,” Spruill said Saturday. “I’d love to bless somebody else’s child with life. Thaiya was my life.”
Smith’s family said Spruill has hardly been at the hospital and that she bears some responsibility for the girl’s fate.
“Her not being here shows how true it is,” said Smith’s sister La’Sean Brooks, 23. “Why are you not here then? Because you’re guilty.”
Smith’s family kept a grim vigil at Brookdale University Hospital as the decision over the organs continued to play out.
“We’re praying,” Thaiya’s aunt D’Anna Smith said. “We’re believing in God at this point.”
“This little girl was at the very beginning of her life,” said District Attorney Ken Thompson. “We will now seek justice on behalf of this innocent child who simply did not deserve to suffer such a horrible (fate).”
Cops were also investigating the tragic death of another child, 3-year-old Poseidon Quinones.
An autopsy was completed Saturday on the boy’s bruised body, but no cause of death was declared pending further study.
The boy was discovered early Saturday by his grandmom Madeline Yensi, who became the little boy’s legal guardian after he was taken from his biological parents over neglect issues.
Yensi had temporary custody pending resolution of the issue, with a police source saying their apartment was a mess. Yensi’s son and another granddaughter lived in the apartment, too.
She claimed that the little boy went to bed around 7 p.m., and she never heard a peep until discovering his lifeless body at 1:40 a.m. He was taken to Lincoln Medical Center, but couldn’t be saved.
“I heard a woman screaming like at 2 o’clock in the morning,” said Ernest Suarez, who lives in a nearby building. “There were a lot of firetrucks and emergency crews. It’s sad to hear.”
Mirtha Banegas, who lived in the same multifamily house with the grandmom, said detectives told her they found bruises on Poseidon’s body and neck.
Yensi worked security, and mostly kept to herself, said neighbor Diana Torres, 39 — adding that she had never seen Poseidon’s mother at the home.
“Only the grandmother,” said Torres. “I see her every morning when she comes home from work.”
With Erik Badia,Tanisia Morris and Thomas Tracy
