IZAYAH HALL - 2 yo/ Accused: Mother; Afriyie Gaspard - Queens NY

Mother of Queens 2-Year-Old Charged in His Murder

August 13, 2012, 11:42 am
By ANDY NEWMAN and ERIC P. NEWCOMER

The mother of a 2-year-old Queens boy was arrested on Monday on charges of murdering him, the police said.

The boy, Izayah Hall, was found strangled on Friday evening inside his family’s apartment at 155-14 Jewel Avenue in the Pomonok public housing complex, the police said.

His mother, Afriyie Gaspard, 29, is to be charged with manslaughter and murder, the police said.

After Izayah’s death, his five siblings were placed in the care of New York City’s child welfare agency, the Administration for Children’s Services, it said.

Ms. Gaspard’s older sister Stephanie Gaspard said Afriyie Gaspard had previously been arrested on charges of child abandonment, had lost custody of her children for three years and had gotten them back in March.

She said that in the abandonment case, Afriyie Gaspard had left her children with a baby sitter at her apartment, that the baby sitter left, and that when Afriyie returned home and found some of the children missing, she went to a police station, where she found her children but where she was arrested.

Stephanie Gaspard, 32, said her sister, known as Fee to her friends, took parenting courses as she struggled to get her children back. Ms. Gaspard said Afriyie would call her and cry, “I don’t know why they’re holding them so long.”

The children range in age from 7 months to 7 years, she said.

“She loved her children and would never do anything to hurt them,” Ms. Gaspard said.

She said Afriyie Gaspard and the children lived in a small two-bedroom apartment with three children sleeping in each bedroom and Afriyie sleeping in the living room. She said the children were afraid they would be returned to foster care. When Afriyie punished them, she said, they would say: “Please, we’ll be good. We don’t want to go back.”

Ms. Gaspard said that Afriyie Gaspard was not married but that there was a man in her life who “helps with what he can, if he can.”

The Administration for Children’s Services would not say whether it had any prior contact with Afriyie Gaspard, and law enforcement authorities said they did not have information on the abandonment case.

One neighbor of Afriyie Gaspard’s, Magdalia Fonteur, said Ms. Gaspard “was stressed and overwhelmed” and “always looked like she had a lot in her head.”

“She had no space,” Ms. Fonteur said. “She was paralyzed.”

Stephanie Gaspard said that her sister told her she had found Izayah unconscious on Friday and called the police herself, and that she did not kill him.

“Why would you strangle your child and try to wake it up?” Stephanie Gaspard asked.

Another neighbor, who gave his name only as Carlos, said that at one point, Ms. Gaspard worked for National Wholesale Liquidators. There is an Afriyie Gaspard on Facebook whose profile states that she formerly worked at National Wholesale Liquidators and that she had attended college in Queens. In February, she posted a photo of herself with a baby girl she said was 5 months old.

A Facebook friend complimented the photo and asked how many children she had now.

“Oh you won’t believe how many children I have now,” Afriyie Gaspard responded.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/13/mother-of-queens-2-year-old-charged-in-his-murder/

I Only Squeezed His Neck To Get Him To Stop Crying: Mom To Cops

By NARMEEN CHOUDHURY pix11.com | @pix11narmeen
10:30 p.m. EDT, August 13, 2012

FRESH MEADOWS, NY (PIX11)— 29-year-old Afriyie Gaspard was overcome with emotion as detectives struggled to walk her out of the 107th precinct after she was arrested for allegedly strangling her 2 year old child, Izayah Hall, to death on Friday.

Investigators said Gaspard did the unimaginable when she told detectives she squeezed her toddler son’s neck for about one minute to get him to stop crying. Izayah fell to the floor, began gasping and wasn’t checked on until 45 minutes later when it was too late. Gaspard’s sister, Stefanie Gaspard, however, today is saying her sister’s apparent confession was coerced.

“My sister is not a murderer. She never even raised her voice to her children,” said Stefanie Gaspard.

According to the Queens County District Attorney’s office, the medical examiner found little Izayah’s injuries were consistent to strangulation. Gaspard has 5 other children, who were all taken from her and placed in foster care in 2007, according to Gaspard’s sister. The children were only returned to Gaspard one month ago.

Gaspard is charged with first and second degree manslaughter, first degree assault, first degree strangulation and endangering the welfare of a child. If convicted, Gaspard could face up to 25 years behind bars.

http://www.wpix.com/news/wpix-i-only-squeezed-his-neck-to-get-him-to-stop-crying-mom-to-cops-20120813,0,6808140.story

Sad. A little 2 year old is going to cry. You don't punish that.

She should get the death penality. 25 years when the child is dead.
I think we should change the laws. Any person killing a child
deliberatley should automatically get the death penality. No matter
what state. Death for a death.

William

Queens Mom Accused Of Fatally Strangling 2-Yr-Old Blamed 7-Yr-Old Daughter

By Ben Yakas in News on August 15, 2012 4:48 PM

On Monday, a Queens mom was charged with strangling her 2-year-old son to death. Afriyie Gaspard, 29, has been charged with first and second-degree manslaughter, strangulation, assault and endangering the welfare of a child in the death of Izayah Hall, one of Gaspard's six children. According to the Post, Gaspard confessed to "squeezing" Izayah for "a minute...until he stopped crying" on August 10th. But before she confessed, the News reports Gaspard blamed her 7-year-old daughter for the death, repeatedly telling police she “hit or choked” the baby.

Gaspard had initially told arriving officers she "had taken a nap and, when she woke up, Izayah was unresponsive in his crib" on Friday, but the Medical Examiner found marks on the boy’s neck, and Gaspard was arrested Monday. According to WNYC, Gaspard has had her kids taken away on multiple occasion by ACS:

In 2008, her three oldest children were put into foster care after she was accused of leaving them unattended on two different occasions. The oldest child at the time was three. In 2009, a fourth child was placed in foster care shortly after birth, as was Izayah, who was born in 2010. Gaspard’s youngest child, an 11-month-old baby was not removed.

Gaspard's lawyer has already made comments indicating he believes the confession was coerced by police: “She was not in a good mental state of mind,” said attorney Edward Muccini. “She was traumatized." Her sister, Ebboni Gaspard, defended her to the Times Ledger: “What the NYPD did with my sister is completely unfair,” she said, claiming police have forced the confession. “My sister is a saint. She has walked among us devils. That’s how I feel sometimes.”

One neighbor, Magdalia Fonteur, told the Times that Gaspard “was stressed and overwhelmed” and “always looked like she had a lot in her head.” And in one Facebook post from May 22nd, she wrote: "Have'nt posted in a while, but Just been really stressing! Yo, ladies and gentelemen, I really need help! Yall hit me up ok?"

http://gothamist.com/2012/08/15/queens_mom_accused_of_fatally_stran.php

Pregnant plea from death ma

• By CHRISTINA CARREGA
  
• Last Updated: 2:55 AM, November 27, 2012
  
• Posted: 2:13 AM, November 27, 2012
  

A Queens woman indicted on charges she killed her 2-year-old son asked a
judge for more lenient jail conditions yesterday — because she’s
pregnant.

Afriyie Gaspard, 29, allegedly choked one of her six
kids, Izayah Hall, to death inside her Kew Gardens Hills apartment
because he’d been “kicking, screaming and crying.”

After he made “gurgling sounds,” she left him with his “eyes wide open” in his bed for
about an hour before she called 911, a criminal complaint says. He was
pronounced dead at New York Hospital Queens.

Now Gaspard has another kid on the way.

Her lawyer, Edward Muccini, told the judge about his client’s condition,
and said that she had been struggling with what she’d described as harsh
conditions at Rikers Island.

www.nypost.com/p/.../queens/item_H1oMHyawszWl0SrcC6KQ6O

Oh boo hoo, her living conditions are harsh. Her poor little baby is dead, that's harsh.

7 children in 7 years. The breeder is sick and needs to be incarcerated for life under the most harsh conditions possible.

Her baby factory will be shut down at age 29 if they keep her locked up, away from children, men and society.. Thank heavens.

This murdering bitch couldn't even feed her children, the state (taxpayers) was responsible for their food, medical care, etc.

How disgusting that this uterus kept spitting out babies under these conditions.

Twink I agree. I hope they put that biotch away for life. I wish they could sterilize murderers so we wouldn't have to worry about them having more kids. Since they don't, she'll probably find a way to get pregnant again. Just watch.

BabyJ, she is so low she blamed her 7 year old.

I just want to know why she kept spitting out babies. Wonder how many different fathers there are. Probably 7.