Harlem home where 4-year-old boy starved to death was stocked with food: prosecutors

The Harlem flat wherever a 4-year-old lad was allegedly starved to death by his parents was stocked with nutrient — but the refrigerator doorway was turned to the partition and the cabinets were padlocked, prosecutors said connected Thursday.

Authorities said small Jahmeik Modlin weighed lone 19 pounds astatine the clip of his death, adjacent arsenic the flat was packed with nutritious fare.

His 3 young siblings, ages 5, 6 and 7, were suffering from malnutrition, too, officials said.

“There was a refrigerator. It had nutrient successful it,” said Heather Buchanan, an adjunct Manhattan territory attorney. “However, the refrigerator was turned to the wall, truthful it was not accessible by immoderate of the children unless it was turned around. All cabinets that had nutrient successful them had child-safety locks connected them.”

Buchanan served up the shocking revelation astatine a tribunal arraignment for the boy’s father, Laron Modlin, 25. Prosecutors said Modlin, 25, was a atrocious dada who, on with his wife, the boy’s mother, allowed the malnourished child to discarded distant and die.

A time earlier, the tot’s mom, Nytavia Ragsdale, 26, was jailed for failing to provender the child.

The ceremonial charges against Modlin were presented successful Manhattan Criminal Court days aft small Jahmeik was recovered unconscious Sunday nighttime malnourished and suffering from hypothermia successful their flat connected Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. adjacent W. 145th St.

Medics recovered the lad unresponsive and rushed him to Harlem Hospital.

Jahmeik Modlin and his mother, Nytavia Ragsdale.

Ragsdale, 26, has been charged with criminally negligent homicide and endangering the payment of a child, authorities said Monday.

Authorities said the couple’s 3 different children are presently hospitalized and nether the attraction of the city’s Administration for Children’s Services, officials said.

“At autopsy, the kid weighed lone 19 pounds,” ADA Buchanan said. “On the maturation illustration for children, this kid does not adjacent look wrong the maturation percentiles. He is so zero percentile compared to children his age. The kid had astir nary abdominous successful his body, particularly successful his tummy and his buttocks.”

Buchanan said the boy’s hairsbreadth was thinning, a chiseled motion of malnutrition.

“The kid besides had hairsbreadth connected his face, which lone comes for a prolonged play of dehydration and malnutrition,” she added.

Oct. 17, 2024: Just 19 lbs. astatine 4 years old

New York Daily News

Front leafage of the New York Daily News for Oct. 17, 2024: Mom faces justice successful decease of malnourished son, and tribunal papers uncover helium was conscionable 19 lbs. astatine 4 years old. Nytavia Ragsdale is charged successful the decease of her lad Jahmeik Modlin.

Officials said the lad had been starved for years.

Ragsdale has said that she did the superior cooking and buying and fed the kids arsenic overmuch arsenic they needed.

But according to a transgression complaint, small Jahmeik was truthful nutrient deprived that helium would devour his ain vomit. Authorities said the boy’s 19-pound framework was conscionable tegument and bones astatine the clip of his death.

Ragsdale, though, told constabulary she believed Jahmeik weighed 100 pounds and that helium indispensable person mislaid value precocious owed to an illness. She said that for months, the kid had been vomiting each of his nutrient and past eating it, the transgression ailment read.

Ragsdale besides said she lone fed Jahmeik tiny portions astatine a clip due to the fact that helium couldn’t support nutrient down and had diarrhea a fewer times a week, that she has ne'er gotten the children vaccinated and does not instrumentality them to the doc unless it is an emergency, according to tribunal papers.