KEVASIA EDWARDS - 2 yo - / Charged: Mother, Ashley Diaz - Queens, NY

Queens mom being questioned after girl, 2, dies under suspicious circumstances: cops 


Toddler Kevasia Edwards was unconscious when police arrived at the Beach 56th Place home in the Rockaways about 11:30 p.m. Monday, police said. She was rushed to St. John's Hospital, where she died at 12:02 a.m. The girl had two broken ribs, cops said, and her mother, Ashley Diaz, had a history of arrests and incidents documented by the Administration for Children's Services.

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Published: Tuesday, February 4, 2014, 7:36 AM
Updated: Tuesday, February 4, 2014, 4:13 PM



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Police found Kevasia Edwards unconscious and with bruises about 11 p.m. Monday.

A 2-year-old girl was found dead in her Queens home with bruising around her mouth, police said Tuesday.

Toddler Kevasia Edwards was unconscious when police arrived at the Beach 56th Place home in the Rockaways about 11:30 p.m. Monday, police said.

An EMS crew rushed the tot to St. John's Hospital, where she died at 12:02 a.m. The girl's mother, identified as Ashley Diaz, 28, was being questioned, sources said.

The girl had suffered two broken ribs, cops said. One was an old injury and the other fairly recent. Her four brothers, 6, 4, 3 and 10, were being evaluated at the hospital, the sources said.

Neighbors on the sixth floor of the apartment building where the family lived said they were alarmed by a commotion in their hallway around 11 p.m.


"I heard the woman scream," said one neighbor who didn't want to be identified. "When I came to my door, I saw the little girl being wheeled out on a stretcher by the fire department. They were doing chest compressions on her."

A police source said the mom had a troubled past that included arrests for assault and menacing.

Diaz has a sealed arrest in 2003, two more sealed arrests in 2008 and one for assault that same year, and an arrest in 2011 for menacing.

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The little girl was rushed from her home at Beach 56th Place in Rockaways, Queens, above, to St. John's Hospital where she died.
The source said she also had a history with the city's Administration for Children's Services, which logged three complaints against her.

In May 2011 ACS responded to allegations that Diaz was smoking marijuana.


In February 2012 another complaint was made to ACS, but the details of it are not known. The complaint was sealed.

In April 2012, the agency responded to allegations that Diaz was using drugs and had an unkempt apartment.

All the complaints were determined to be unfounded.

Another neighbor said she didn't know the mother well but saw her often with her five children.

"I see her with the kids, playing, but we don't talk that much," said Rosemary Williams, 64.

"That was her only girl," Williams said. "She was a cute little girl, it's so sad."


http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/queens-girl-2-dead-suspicious-police-article-1.1601335

Queens mom charged in death of 2-year-old daughter

Thursday, February 06, 2014
Eyewitness News

NEW YORK (WABC) -- A young mother in Queens answered to charges in the death of her 2-year-old daughter Thursday.

Ashley Diaz, 28, could face life in prison if convicted of second-degree murder after prosecutors say her daughter was found unresponsive Monday in their apartment in Far Rockaway.

Kevasia Edwards was pronounced dead at the hospital.

The autopsy revealed evidence of violent impacts to the toddler's head and body.

"The defendant has been charged with causing the death of her own child, a defenseless 2-year-old girl who suffered greatly in her short life," District Attorney Richard Brown said. "The actions of the defendant are totally incomprehensible."

New York City's Administration for Children's Services has investigated the family before.

"It didn't work," a neighbor said. "It was too late. She was gone. She was gone."

On Tuesday, detectives returned to the building where family lived on the sixth floor. Kavasia has four brothers, ages 10, 6, 4 and 3.

George Frank is a security guard there, and he told Eyewitness News he used to always see Kevasia with her mom.

"Cute little girl, very, very nice," he said. "Always called me papa here, so when I heard it hurt me a little bit."

Investigators say that when they found the little girl, she had bruises around her mouth and broken ribs.

Sources tell Eyewitness News that ACS officials received four complaints -- three against Kevasia's mother and one linked to the child's father, since 2011 and all determined to be unfounded. Still, this wasn't Diaz's first run-in with police. She was arrested in 2008 for assault and 2011 for menacing, in addition to three other incidents in her record that are sealed.

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local/new_york&id=9419450