THAIYA SPRUILL-SMITH - 2 yo (11/14) - / Charged: Stepfather, David Adams - Brooklyn, NY

Brooklyn girl, 2, expected to be taken off life support after alleged assault by stepfather leaves her brain dead

Thaiya Spruill-Smith suffered a massive head injury at the hands of her stepfather, which left her brain dead, authorities said. Her stepfather David Adams faces charges of assault, which may be upgraded to murder. Thaiya is expected to be taken off life support Saturday, once her parents decide whether to donate her organs, relatives said.

 
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Friday, November 14, 2014, 11:47 PM

Thaiya Spruill-Smith, 2, is currently on life support after suffering a massive brain injury, cops said.

A shaken toddler won’t live to see her third birthday, and authorities charged the Brooklyn girl’s stepfather Friday night in her savage assault.

Two-year-old Thaiya Spruill-Smith was lying brain dead in a hospital, her tiny body being kept alive by machines after suffering a massive head injury at the hands of stepdad David Adams, according to authorities.

The tragic girl is expected to be taken off the machines on Saturday afternoon, once her parents decide if they want to donate her organs, family members said. Doctors told her parents, Teoka Spruill and Terrell Smith on Friday night that Taiya has no hope of recovery.

Adams, 25, is currently facing charges of assault, reckless assault on a child and acting in a manner injurious to a child, but those charges are expected to be upgraded to murder on Saturday, prosecutors said.

It was not immediately revealed why Adams harmed the child, but he admitted to shaking little Thaiya when questioned, according to police sources.

Thaiya’s aunt D’Anna Smith said police told her family that Adams made a full confession and used a doll to show detectives how he violently thrashed the little girl. She also said Spruill, 24, is being used as a witness to say that she left her daughter alone with Adams for about 50 minutes, during which Thaiya was irreparably shaken.

That shaking may not be the only torture inflicted on little Thaiya during her short life: She may have been the victim of months of physical abuse, her devastated father claimed.

The city investigated the abuse claims, and even took Thaiya out of her mother’s home, but the agency returned her a week later, her 26-year-old father said.

Sam Costanza
Doctors told the 2-year-old's father, Terrell Smith, that his baby is nearly brain dead.
Sam Costanza
Terrell Smith pictured with Sheryl Brooks, grandmother of 2-year-old Thaiya.
An ACS spokesman would not comment on the earlier investigation, citing confidentiality laws, but said the agency is looking into what caused Thaiya’s death.

Doctors told Smith Thaiya suffered bleeding on the brain. Her injuries went untreated for days, he was told.

After hours of sitting by his daughter’s side in her hospital room, choking back tears as he listened to the machines keeping Thaiya alive, Smith chose to focus on good memories instead of a blank future.

Terrell Smith claims little Thaiya may have been the victim of months of physical abuse.

“She’s very smart . . . she’d sit there and watch football with me all day,” he said of the girl, who had a passion for chocolate milk. “I used to have to go to McDonald’s and buy her a six-pack of chocolate milk.”

Spruill had left Thaiya in Adams’ care when the injuries were inflicted, a law enforcement source said. The exact date was unclear.

The mom called 911 at 6:40 a.m. Thursday, complaining Thaiya had had trouble breathing since the night before, police said.

Paramedics rushed the toddler from her Dumont Ave. home in Brownsville’s Tilden Houses to Brookdale University Hospital, where she was listed in critical condition. Cops were called in after doctors found bruising on Thaiya’s body, officials said.

Smith said Adams had abused the child repeatedly, leaving her with bruises and a bloody lip.

Spruill met Adams in March and quickly married him, Smith said. In June, he began finding bruises and welts all over his daughter.

“[Thaiya] told me she fell through Mommy’s glass table,” the Red Hook resident said. “When I’m asking my daughter’s mother about the marks, she says to ask her husband.”

Google MapsPolice are questioning the stepfather of a bruised 2-year-old Brooklyn girl rushed to Brookdale University Hospital.

Police said Adams has been arrested before, but only for minor traffic violations.

Spruill filed for an order of protection against Smith in October, claiming her child’s father had stalked and tried to detain her, court records show.

Spruill is the half-sister of 17-year-old Tiona Rodriguez, who inexplicably was carrying her dead baby boy in a plastic bag at Victoria’s Secret in Herald Square when she was arrested on a shoplifting charge on Oct. 17, 2013.

The medical examiner determined Rodriguez’s newborn son died from homicidal asphyxiation, but no criminal charges have been filed against the teen, officials said.

The heartbreaking news about Thayia comes a day after more than 200 family members and friends paid their final respects to 3-year-old Jeida Torres, who died Oct. 18 in a city shelter after being kicked and slammed into a metal bed frame, allegedly by her 20-year-old stepfather, Kelsey Smith.


http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/brooklyn-girl-life-support-alleged-abuse-stepdad-article-1.2011799

Brooklyn girl, 2, expected to be taken off life support after alleged assault by stepfather leaves her brain dead

Thaiya Spruill-Smith suffered a massive head injury at the hands of her stepfather, which left her brain dead, authorities said. Her stepfather David Adams faces charges of assault, which may be upgraded to murder. Thaiya is expected to be taken off life support Saturday, once her parents decide whether to donate her organs, relatives said.

BY BARRY PADDOCK , THOMAS TRACY  NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Friday, November 14, 2014, 11:47 PM
Updated: Saturday, November 15, 2014, 2:55 AM

A shaken toddler won’t live to see her third birthday, and authorities charged the Brooklyn girl’s stepfather Friday night in her savage assault.

Two-year-old Thaiya Spruill-Smith was lying brain dead in a hospital, her tiny body being kept alive by machines after suffering a massive head injury at the hands of stepdad David Adams, according to authorities.



The tragic girl is expected to be taken off the machines on Saturday afternoon, once her parents decide if they want to donate her organs, family members said. Doctors told her parents, Teoka Spruill and Terrell Smith on Friday night that Taiya has no hope of recovery.

Adams, 25, is currently facing charges of assault, reckless assault on a child and acting in a manner injurious to a child, but those charges are expected to be upgraded to murder on Saturday, prosecutors said.

It was not immediately revealed why Adams harmed the child, but he admitted to shaking little Thaiya when questioned, according to police sources.

Thaiya’s aunt D’Anna Smith said police told her family that Adams made a full confession and used a doll to show detectives how he violently thrashed the little girl. She also said Spruill, 24, is being used as a witness to say that she left her daughter alone with Adams for about 50 minutes, during which Thaiya was irreparably shaken.

That shaking may not be the only torture inflicted on little Thaiya during her short life: She may have been the victim of months of physical abuse, her devastated father claimed.

The city investigated the abuse claims, and even took Thaiya out of her mother’s home, but the agency returned her a week later, her 26-year-old father said.

An ACS spokesman would not comment on the earlier investigation, citing confidentiality laws, but said the agency is looking into what caused Thaiya’s death.

Doctors told Smith Thaiya suffered bleeding on the brain. Her injuries went untreated for days, he was told.

After hours of sitting by his daughter’s side in her hospital room, choking back tears as he listened to the machines keeping Thaiya alive, Smith chose to focus on good memories instead of a blank future.

“She’s very smart . . . she’d sit there and watch football with me all day,” he said of the girl, who had a passion for chocolate milk. “I used to have to go to McDonald’s and buy her a six-pack of chocolate milk.”

Spruill had left Thaiya in Adams’ care when the injuries were inflicted, a law enforcement source said. The exact date was unclear.

The mom called 911 at 6:40 a.m. Thursday, complaining Thaiya had had trouble breathing since the night before, police said.

Paramedics rushed the toddler from her Dumont Ave. home in Brownsville’s Tilden Houses to Brookdale University Hospital, where she was listed in critical condition. Cops were called in after doctors found bruising on Thaiya’s body, officials said.

Smith said Adams had abused the child repeatedly, leaving her with bruises and a bloody lip.

Spruill met Adams in March and quickly married him, Smith said. In June, he began finding bruises and welts all over his daughter.

“[Thaiya] told me she fell through Mommy’s glass table,” the Red Hook resident said. “When I’m asking my daughter’s mother about the marks, she says to ask her husband.”

Police said Adams has been arrested before, but only for minor traffic violations.

Spruill filed for an order of protection against Smith in October, claiming her child’s father had stalked and tried to detain her, court records show.

Spruill is the half-sister of 17-year-old Tiona Rodriguez, who inexplicably was carrying her dead baby boy in a plastic bag at Victoria’s Secret in Herald Square when she was arrested on a shoplifting charge on Oct. 17, 2013.

The medical examiner determined Rodriguez’s newborn son died from homicidal asphyxiation, but no criminal charges have been filed against the teen, officials said.

The heartbreaking news about Thayia comes a day after more than 200 family members and friends paid their final respects to 3-year-old Jeida Torres, who died Oct. 18 in a city shelter after being kicked and slammed into a metal bed frame, allegedly by her 20-year-old stepfather, Kelsey Smith.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/brooklyn-girl-life-support-alleged-abuse-stepdad-article-1.2011799

Father Prevails, Halting the Donation of His Brain-Dead Daughter’s Organs

By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD
NOV. 18, 2014

The fight over the fate of a 2-year-old Brooklyn girl’s organs ended on Tuesday, with the girl’s father prevailing in his wishes to keep her body intact.

Thaiya Spruill-Smith, the victim of an assault to which her stepfather has confessed, was declared brain-dead on Friday but had been kept on life support as her parents argued over whether her organs should be donated.

The argument spilled into Family Court in Brooklyn, and was to center on who had legal custody over Thaiya.

The custody issue, it turned out, was moot.

Because the girl’s father, Terrell Smith, is on Thaiya’s birth certificate and there is no dispute that he is her father, he and the girl’s mother each have an equal right to help determine what happens with her organs.

Ms. Rivera emphasized that she could not comment on an individual case. But speaking in general, she said organ and tissue donation “can only occur when there is agreement amongst family members to proceed with donation.” Mr. Smith met on Monday with Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center staff members, who showed him scans of Thaiya’s brain, his lawyer, David J. Hernandez, said. Mr. Smith now agrees that Thaiya is brain-dead and should be taken off life support.

He still objected to donating her organs, though, and Mr. Hernandez said if one parent objected, the organs would not be donated.

On Tuesday morning, before the court hearing, Mr. Hernandez expressed concern that donating Thaiya’s organs could compromise a criminal investigation against the girl’s stepfather, David Adams.

“What is the motive of the mom suddenly being so gracious, to say, ‘We’ll give these organs away’?” he asked.

The actual court hearing on Tuesday afternoon was over in a few minutes. Once custody no longer mattered, Mr. Smith withdrew his petition.

“I cannot even imagine what the two of you must be going through at this time,” Judge Maria Arias told Mr. Smith and Teoka Spruill, the girl’s mother.

“I am a parent but I have never suffered” in that way, Judge Arias added.

Ms. Spruill said little at the hearing, and she did not address reporters afterward. She had said that donating her daughter’s organs would mean some good would come of her death.

Ms. Spruill’s grandmother, Diane Howard, said on Tuesday night that the family was uncertain of its next move. “I don’t have any information right now,” she said from the window of her home in Jamaica, Queens. “We don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Mr. Adams, 25, admitted to violently shaking Thaiya, and doctors said the bleeding and excess fluid in her brain were consistent with shaking. He is charged with assault, and the Brooklyn district attorney expected to upgrade the charges to murder if the medical examiner ruled the death is a homicide.

A spokesman for Brookdale, Khari Edwards, said the hospital was not aware of any decision from the parents. “We are just a facilitator; whatever is worked out between the two parents” is what the hospital will do, he said.

Mr. Hernandez said Thaiya would soon be taken off life support.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/19/nyregion/organs-of-brooklyn-2-year-old-will-not-be-donated.html

Merged duplicate threads.

I can't believe the judge expressed such sympathy to the mother.  She allowed and condoned this abuse of her baby and knowing he was beating the poor little girl, STILL left her alone with him.  She should go to prison along with her husband.

Another POS mother.  Another POS man.  Another dead baby.