The mother of 4-year-old Harlem boy Jahmeik Modlin, who died after being found unconscious in his family’s apartment, starved the child and his three siblings so severely the tot was only 19 pounds at the time of his death, said prosecutors in Manhattan Criminal Court Wednesday.
The children, ages 4, 5, 6 and 7, never attended school, and were isolated from the rest of the family for the past year, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Heather Buchanan said at Ragsdale’s arraignment. Little Jahmeik’s three siblings, who are currently hospitalized and under the care of ACS, are so malnourished that they can only receive IV fluids, the prosecutor added.
“They are not able to sustain any solids at this time,” the prosecutor said.
“Over a prolonged period of time, the defendant failed to provide food and nutrition to her 4-year-old child along with her husband,” Assistant District Attorney Heather Buchanan said of Nytavia Ragsdale, 26.
Medics who responded to a 911 call from Ragsdale on Sunday night found Jahmeik malnourished and suffering from hypothermia in the apartment on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. near W. 145th St.
He had no fat, including in his stomach or buttocks, said Buchanan.
“All of these factors indicate that this condition was chronic,” the prosecutor said. “This was a prolonged period of deprivation endured by this child …”
Ragsdale and her husband and codefendant were the child’s only caregivers, Buchanan said. She said Ragsdale claimed her husband was a good husband and that she did the primary cooking and shopping and fed the kids as much as they needed.
But according to a criminal complaint, little Jahmeik was so deprived of food that he would eat his own vomit.
Ragsdale told police she believed Jahmeik weighed 100 pounds, and that he must have lost weight recently due to an illness. She said that for months the child had been vomiting all of his food and then eating it, the criminal complaint read.
Ragsdale also said she only fed Jahmeik small portions at a time because he couldn’t keep food down and had diarrhea a few times a week, that she has never gotten the children vaccinated and does not take them to the doctor unless it is an emergency, according to court papers.
Buchanan said Ragsdale and her husband, Laron Modlin, 25, had isolated themselves and the kids from all family and friends for the last year, and had they let anyone in, “It would have been very clear that things were not OK.”
Nytavia Ragsdale, 26, mother of the malnourished 4-year-old boy, is taken by detectives from NYPD’s 32 precinct, on Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (Sam Costanza for the New York Daily News)
In court papers, Modlin, who is the father of the three younger children, said he must not have noticed Jahmeik’s condition because Modlin is often playing video games or on his phone.
Ragsdale and Modlin are charged with manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child after initially being charged criminally negligent homicide and endangering the welfare of a child.
Ragsdale wore the same grimy burgundy sweatshirt she had on when she was arrested Monday. She rocked from side to side and appeared to tear up as she waited for her case to be called on a bench close to the holding cells in the courtroom.
Ragsdale’s lawyer, Naomi Oberman-Breinde, pointed to four of the mother’s relatives in the audience, one of whom cried as the prosecutor described Jahmeik’s condition.
She asked for Ragsdale’s release under supervision, arguing this was her first arrest and that “unlike the codefendant in this matter, she did not flee.”
Judge Jay Weiner held Ragsdale on $100,000 cash bail or $300,000 bond and issued a protective order preventing her from contact with her three surviving kids.
“You may have no contact with these children,” Weiner clarified, prompting Ragsdale to break down into tears.
A neighbor, Erica Speed, 41, told the Daily News Monday the mom has lived in the apartment for three years with her four young children — but Speed said she has “never seen not one of them.”
“We always ask about the kids. She never have them. I never seen them go to school. I never see her take them out,” Speed said. “She been living here for almost three years, and I never seen the child.”
Ragsdale didn’t keep up with her appearance, almost never changed clothes, and rejected Speed’s offers to give her clothing and sneakers, the neighbor said.
“She had on the same outfit for basically like two years. Same sweatpants for two years, so people around here, they gave her a nickname, ‘Same Fit’ — same outfit. It’s just crazy,” Speed said.
A neighbor who asked not to be identified described the relationship between Ragsdale and Modlin as “abusive.”
“He wasn’t stay(ing) there. He would come and go,” the neighbor said of Modlin on Tuesday.
”You wouldn’t know they had children,” she added.
The family was previously investigated by ACS, who suspected Jahmeik was malnourished. But investigators did not substantiate the allegation, a law enforcement source said Tuesday.
The source also said the little boy was born with marijuana in his system.
Jahmeik’s father was charged Tuesday. His appearance in court was pending.
The city medical examiner is still investigating Jahmeik’s cause of death. Police initially thought the boy had burns on his body but those markings were later determined to be severe eczema, a police source said.