CARDELL WILLIAMSON - 20 months (8/14) - / Charged: Baby care owner, Athena Skeeter - Bronx, NY

Monday, August 25, 2014, 5:21 PM

  Richard Harbus for New York Daily News Isliel Hayward-Barnes, 12, told The News how he helped Athena Skeeter take groceries into her Bronx home on Friday and discovered the body of 20-month-old Cardell Williamson, who had died earlier.  

She killed the baby — then went shopping.

A child day care provider apparently went grocery shopping after a baby suffered fatal injuries in her Bronx home.

A 12-year-old neighbor said he saw the lifeless body of 20-month-old Cardell Williamson when he helped Athena Skeeter carry grocery bags into her apartment on Friday afternoon.

Isliel Hayward-Barnes told the Daily News Monday that little Cardell was naked, wet, stiff, cold to the touch and propped on Skeeter’s living room couch. He said the child appeared to have tape on his mouth and scrapes on his face and head.

“I’ve never seen anybody dead. I didn’t realize he was dead,” Isliel, breaking into tears, said after his mother, Shirley Hayward-Barnes, 54, gave The News permission to speak to him.

Isliel lives about a block from Skeeter in the same building where Cardell resided with his father, Carlyle Williamson, 56. While they’re not related, Isliel called Cardell his “cousin.”

The boy said he ran into Skeeter about 2 p.m. on Friday, when she returned to her College Ave. building with bags of groceries. He said Skeeter’s mother, Cora Cross, 65, was sitting in a rocking chair in the kitchen when he entered the apartment.

“I went to help her (Skeeter) with groceries,” Isliel said. “I went into the kitchen and put the bags away and looked into the living room. I saw my little cousin on the couch.

“I went over to him. He wasn’t moving,” he said. “He didn’t move his arms. He was cold and stiff. He had a scrape on his face. He was butt naked and he was wet. He had masking tape on his mouth. He had bruises on his head.”


“I stepped on his stomach three times. I didn’t use full force. I then threw my son on top of Cardell and stepped on his stomach three times,” Skeeter told detectives, according to a criminal complaint.

She said Cardell threw up, couldn’t walk on his own and his head “kept tilting.”

Skeeter, who is being held without bail, said she put Cardell in the bathtub and splashed cold water on his face. She removed a bath chair from the bathroom and when she came back, Cardell was submerged in a tub of steaming hot water.

Police arrived at Skeeter’s apartment just after 2 p.m. Friday and rushed Cardell in their squad car to Bronx Lebanon Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

NYPD officials said the case remains under investigation. They could not immediately confirm if Skeeter went shopping after injuring Cardell, nor would they comment on whether the child had tape over his mouth.

But the manager of Compare Foods on 170th St., around the corner from Skeeter’s home, told The News he saw Skeeter buying groceries in the store, apparently with her son, on Friday afternoon.

“I saw her here. She was with a little boy. He was walking around,” the manager said. “She did not have a baby with her.”

Cardell’s heartbroken father, Williamson, said city officials referred him to Skeeter as part of a back-to-work program run by the Human Resources Administration of the Department of Social Services.


 20-month-old Cardell Williamson died while in the care of a Bronx woman running a home day care.  


He said Skeeter, 40, yelled at him for snooping around.

“She screamed at me,” Isliel recalled, “She said, ‘Why are you in my living room, you stupid b----? You’re supposed to be in the kitchen.

“She told me if I ever told anyone she’d kill me,” Isliel said. “I hit her with my shoulder and ran out and went to my mom. I told her what happened.”

His mother said she immediately called 911.

“When he came to me it was like he saw a ghost,” Shirley Hayward-Barnes said of her son. “He kept saying to me, ‘He’s not moving, mommy.’ He said it was Cardell. He said, ‘He's not breathing, he’s not moving.”

Skeeter, a state licensed day care provider since 2005, was arraigned Sunday on charges of manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child.

She told detectives that Cardell went unconscious after she spent time “wrestling” with him.

Skeeter — who neighbors said suffered several miscarriages before the birth of her son, who is now about 3 years old — told detectives she “flipped” Cardell on a bed then “lifted him by one arm and one leg and threw him on the floor.”


“I stepped on his stomach three times. I didn’t use full force. I then threw my son on top of Cardell and stepped on his stomach three times,” Skeeter told detectives, according to a criminal complaint.

She said Cardell threw up, couldn’t walk on his own and his head “kept tilting.”

Skeeter, who is being held without bail, said she put Cardell in the bathtub and splashed cold water on his face. She removed a bath chair from the bathroom and when she came back, Cardell was submerged in a tub of steaming hot water.

Police arrived at Skeeter’s apartment just after 2 p.m. Friday and rushed Cardell in their squad car to Bronx Lebanon Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

NYPD officials said the case remains under investigation. They could not immediately confirm if Skeeter went shopping after injuring Cardell, nor would they comment on whether the child had tape over his mouth.

But the manager of Compare Foods on 170th St., around the corner from Skeeter’s home, told The News he saw Skeeter buying groceries in the store, apparently with her son, on Friday afternoon.

“I saw her here. She was with a little boy. He was walking around,” the manager said. “She did not have a baby with her.”

Cardell’s heartbroken father, Williamson, said city officials referred him to Skeeter as part of a back-to-work program run by the Human Resources Administration of the Department of Social Services.

Williamson, a recovering drug addict who was awarded sole custody of Cardell two months ago, said the program offered free day care service from a provider licensed by the state or city.

“I blame the city,” Williamson said Monday. “I was unemployed at one time, so I went to them for help until I could get another job.”

He said he’s been raising Cardell on his own. He said the baby’s mother is a drug addict, who is not in their lives.

“The first thing I go there and they want me to find a child provider, like not (later), right now so I could get these benefits,” the father said. “So they didn't really let me do my homework and find my kid a safe place.”

He said Skeeter began caring for his son three to four months ago.

Mayor de Blasio called the Cardell’s death “a real tragedy” and vowed the city would conduct a full investigation.

“As a parent it’s very painful to me to think about the loss of this child and what this family is going through right now,” de Blasio said Monday.

He said a preliminary investigation showed that while Skeeter was licensed by the state Office of Children and Family Service, her day care operation was supposedly overseen by the state and city.

“So we want to get down to the bottom what happened,” de Blasio said.

He said the city usually offers parents enrolled in the back-to-work program multiple day care providers to choose from.

“If they don’t like the site they’re in we give them a chance to change sites,” de Blasio said. “Our obligation is to make sure each and every site is safe. So we want to find out what happened here and see if we have to make any changes as a result.”

Relatives and neighbors of Skeeter said they were stunned by the charges against her, some saying they’re suspicious of the ghastly details.

“She took care of a lot of kids over the years. All she did was keep to herself, stay in her apartment and look after children,” said Sterling Anderson, 42, who identified himself as Skeeter’s cousin.

“I have eight sons myself that she took care of,” Anderson said. “We never could have imagined something like this could happen.”
Janet Irley, 63, of the Bronx said she’s known Skeeter for more than four decades.

“It’s an accident. They have it wrong,” she said of cops. “She took good care of that boy. She taught that by to walk and talk.”

The Office Children and Family Services revoked Skeeters’ day-care providers license and opened an investigation.

Records show that Skeeter has been cited for multiple minor violation in nine inspections of her facility since 2008 by OCFS and he city health department.



http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/boy-talks-dead-20-month-old-bronx-home-day-care-article-1.1916368#ixzz3BSyf6Qdh

Thursday, August 28, 2014, 7:56 P


  Richard Harbus/(Richard Harbus/for New York Dai Tomasina Cheatham said she was in the process of turning her life around when she heard her 20-month-old son died last week.  

The heartbroken mom of a 20-month-old baby who died at a Bronx daycare said Thursday she has been turning her life around in recent weeks in hopes of reclaiming custody of the doomed boy.

“Here I am trying to get myself together so that my son could be back in my life — and he’s gone,” said Tomasina Cheatham, 33, tearfully speaking out for the first time since the death of little Cardell Williamson.

“My family is destroyed.”

Daycare provider Athena Skeeter, 40, admitted to cops she threw the boy on the hardwood floor while “wrestling,” stepped on him, tossed her 3-year-old son on him and then submerged him in a tub of steaming water on Aug. 22, according to a criminal complaint.

After Skeeter called 911, cops rushed the boy to Bronx Lebanon Hospital, where he couldn’t be saved.

  Richard Harbus/(Richard Harbus/for New York Dai Family of Cardell Williamson gathered at Bronx Criminal Court Thursday for a hearing for the child's accused killer, Athena Skeeter.  

Charges against her were upgraded to murder Thursday.

“I just want this lady to pay for what she did to my child,” said Cheatham, who is seven-months pregnant and has two older kids who live with her sister.

She said she’s been in voluntary drug rehab the last month.

“I wasn’t on the streets,” she said. “I was in a program doing what I have to do to get my son back. I love my son.”

  facebook/facebook Skeeter was hit with upgraded charges of murder Thursday after she was indicted in Cardell's death.  

More than a dozen other relatives of the slain boy packed a Bronx courtroom Thursday, hoping to hear from the baby’s accused killer, who disappointed them by waiving her right to appear.

Skeeter, who is being held without bail on Rikers Island, sent her lawyer instead for the brief appearance in Bronx Criminal Court.

“I just want to see her,” said Carlyle Williamson, 56, the boy’s father.

“I just want to see her facial expression. I really want to ask the big question — why? I’m going back home with this question of why.”

  Jeff Bachner/for New York Daily News Skeeter allegedly told cops she was "wrestling" with little Cardell on Aug. 22.  

Prosecutors notified the court the case was being presented to a grand jury during the brief hearing.

“She has the right to remain silent,” Skeeter's lawyer, Michael Beatrice, told reporters after the hearing.

“You can’t make someone speak — it’s a part of the Constitution.”

Hours later, the grand jury handed down the upgraded murder charge against Skeeter, who had been arrested on charges of manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child.

  Richard Harbus/(Richard Harbus/for New York Dai Family, including the boy's father Carlyle Williamson, said they wanted to see Skeeter in person.  

Skeeter is due back in court Oct. 20.

The tragic tot’s father, a recovering addict who had full custody of Cardell, says city officials mandated he leave the baby at daycare as part of a back-to-work program he qualified for under city welfare rules.

Skeeter was stripped of her state license to run a daycare Monday.

“They should do more investigations on the daycares,” the boy’s mother said Thursday.

There is a wake planned for little Cardell in the Bronx on Friday and a funeral service on Saturday.

“It's just a tragedy,” said the boy’s uncle, Jamal Cheatham, who also attended the hearing Thursday.

“We’re living in a time where anything can happen.”



http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/mom-toddler-died-bronx-daycare-speaks-time-article-1.1920851#ixzz3Bkn3I4la