DIAMOND SMITH - 5 yo (9/2012)/ Charged: Mother Dominique Smith, Father Masceo Emanuel - Trenton, NJ

Five-year-old girl 'killed by her parents' was seriously underweight and covered in bleeding wounds

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 21:24 EST, 13 September 2012 | UPDATED: 00:13 EST, 14 September 2012

A five-year-old girl from Trenton, New Jersey whose parents are charged with her death had multiple wounds and was severely underweight when she died, a court heard today.

At a bail hearing, Deputy First Assistant Prosecutor Kimberly Lacken said an autopsy found hemorrhaging in four areas of the girl’s head, leading to a coroner’s determination that she died of blunt force trauma.

Originally the parents had been charged with child endangerment, but that was upgraded to homicide following the autopsy.


Mother:  Dominique Smith, 22, claimed that she had stopped using the 
belt to discipline her daugther, but open wounds found in the autopsy 
suggested otherwise

The girl also had open wounds over her eye and on her buttocks and several other healing wounds, reports New Jersey.com.

She was severely underweight at the time of her death, weighing as much as a typical three-year-old rather than a five-year-old, Lacken said.

Police searched the home and found a large belt they believe was used to discipline the girl and her six-year-old brother. Police said the beltand its buckle were used to cause the girl’s wounds, including an untreated gash on her buttocks that may have been infected.

'This belt was clearly used for disciplining,' Lacken said. 'It’s huge. It’s not something anyone would wear.'

The parents, Dominique Smith, 22, and Masceo Emanuel, 25, separately appeared in court via video feed from the county corrections center, where they are being held. Their heads were bent down and they rarely looked up.


Criminal record: Masceo Emanuel's prior convictions include drug charges,
resisting arrest, an aggravated assault charge on a police officer and a
sexual assault conviction as a juvenile

'Mr. Emanuel wants your honor to know that he is still mourning his daughter,' defense attorney Jeff Broderick told the judge. 'She was his little angel.'

After hearing the facts of the case, Superior Court Judge Pedro Jimenez said he was not willing to lower the couple’s bail 'by one cent' and kept bail at $1 million each.

The couple told investigators that on July 10, the girl, whose name has not been disclosed, suffered an asthma attack and fell asleep in the living room of their home after they gave her medication.

They later went to bring her to bed, found she was not breathing and called 911. She was pronounced dead at midnight on July 11.

After the girl’s wounds were discovered in the autopsy, Smith and Emanuel first said she was injured from playing roughly with her brother, but later confessed they had used the belt for discipline.

Smith said that she had disciplined the girl from age three until March of this year, when state child protection workers were called to the home.

While Smith claimed that she had stopped using the belt on the child after that point, the open wounds found in the autopsy suggested otherwise, Lacken said.

The parents were initially charged with child endangerment and Smith was released without bail because she was eight months pregnant. The baby was born last month and Smith and Emanuel are in custody.

Jimenez ordered that if the parents are able to raise bail they may not contact their six-year-old son, their newborn child
or Emanuel’s child with another woman.

The couple’s two children are in the care of the Division of Child Protection and Permanency, and Emanuel’s five-year-old child lives with his ex-girlfriend.

Smith has no prior adult charges. Emanuel has several, including drug charges, resisting arrest, an aggravated assault charge on a police officer and a sexual assault conviction as a juvenile, and he has served time in prison.

He has also failed to register as a sex offender, an offense under Megan’s Law, said Lacken.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2203052/Five-year-old-girl-allegedly-killed-parents-underweight-hemorrhaging.html

Couple Indicted in Young Daughter’s Beating Death: Prosecutors

Prosecutors say the child died of blunt force trauma


Saturday, May 4, 2013  |  Updated 4:35 PM EDT


Prosecutors say a Trenton couple has been indicted on murder and child endangerment charges in the death of their 5-year-old daughter last year.

Dominique Smith and her boyfriend, Masceo Emanuel, also face weapons offenses in the indictment recently handed up by a Mercer County grand jury. Bail for both was set at $1 million.

Prosecutors say Diamond Smith was severely underweight and had open and healing wounds when she died in July. The child had hemorrhaging in four areas of her head and wounds over her eye and on her buttocks, and an autopsy determined she died of blunt force trauma.

A search of the family’s Passaic home turned up a belt and belt buckle that authorities believe were the cause of the child’s wounds, according to the Trentonian. In a July 2012 report by The Trentonian, police said that the parents acknowledged beating the child with a belt as a form of punishment.

The couple told investigators the girl suffered an asthma attack and fell asleep.
When they went to bring her to bed, they found she wasn't breathing and called 911.


http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Couple-Indicted-Young-Daughters-Death-206101201.html

DYFS records admissible in case of Trenton parents charged with murder in death of 5 year old, judge rules

Posted on November 20, 2013




provided photos
Dominique Smith and Masceo Emanuel


TRENTON — The two Trenton parents charged with murder in the death of their 5-year-old daughter will be able to present information collected by Division of Child Services caseworkers about the family’s living conditions, a judge ruled today.

The attorney for Masceo Emanuel, 26, sought to have the documents ruled admissible as part of his defense in the case. Emanuel and his girlfriend Dominique Smith, 23, were indicted in the death of their daughter Diamond Smith earlier this year after an autopsy determined the girl died of blunt force trauma.
Diamond was also severely underweight and had hemorrhaging in four areas of her head and wounds over her eye and on her buttocks, prosecutors have said previously.

“I can’t think of any material that might have more relevance than the contact that the Division of Child Services had with these parents,” said Steven Lember, the attorney for Emanuel.

Lisa Landsman, a deputy attorney general for the Division of Child Services, argued that the department records should remain confidential. The casework includes records relating to the treatment of the children and the current living situations of the surviving children.

Superior Court Judge Mark Fleming decided that any casework about the family deemed relevant to the charges would be admissible.

“Nothing I’ve heard in argument suggests that this process should not take place given the high stakes,” Fleming said.

The couple told investigators that on July 10, 2012, Diamond Smith suffered an asthma attack, was given medication and fell asleep in the living room of their Passaic Street home, police have said. When they went to bring her to bed, they found she was not breathing and called 911. She was pronounced dead at midnight.

In addition to murder, Emanuel and Smith were indicted on charges of endangering the welfare of a child and weapons possession.

The couple’s son and a newborn child, who was born after the arrests, are in the protection of the Department of Children and Families. Emanuel also has a 5-year-old child who lives with his ex-girlfriend.

http://jerseytribune.com/2013/11/20/dyfs-records-admissible-in-case-of-trenton-parents-charged-with-murder-in-death-of-5-year-old-judge-rules/

They're going to blame the Division of Child Services for the torture and murder of this poor little girl!!!!!