Early on the day a Brooklyn mom is accused of drowning her 6-year-old daughter Madeline Tavarez during a bathtub baptism she sent the girl’s aunt an ominous message.
“Pray for peace and for Madeline the devil wants her bc she is not baptized,” reads a text to the aunt viewed by the Daily News. “Go to church and pray for Madeline’s protection until I baptize her in my church.”
Little Madeline’s aunt was getting her own children ready for the day in her Florida home but responded quickly.
“I said, ‘Look, if you want to baptize the baby let me go to New York,” the aunt, who asked that her name not be used, told the Daily News. “Let’s sit down with my brother so we could do arrangements in church.
“She’s not entitled to baptize nobody,” the aunt added. “Nobody in their right mind [was] thinking she’s going to kill the baby.”
But within hours, 6-year-old Madeline Tavarez was drowned in the tub in her East New York home about 1:30 p.m. Feb. 7.
“It’s a whole plot twist,” said the aunt. “This sounds like a horror movie. To me I’m still in shock mode.”
Karla Espinal was taken into custody for questioning when cops arrived at the home on Elton St. near Ridgewood Ave. “I was baptizing my daughter,” she told cops, according to the criminal complaint against her.
She was charged the next day with assault, child endangerment and reckless endangerment, accused of holding her daughter’s head underwater.
A police source close to the investigation told the Daily News little Madeline had blood clots in her eyes, indicating a struggle and possibly strangulation, though an autopsy’s initial results were inconclusive.
Prosecutors say Espinal could face upgraded charges once the city medical examiner’s office concludes further studies and determines the girl’s exact cause and manner of death.
“This is a distressing and unspeakable case, which we continue to investigate to ensure that this defendant is held fully accountable,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement. “This innocent child had her whole life ahead of her when the person she depended on allegedly drowned her.”
Through interviews and a review of court documents, The News has crafted a timeline of that morning’s horrific events — which have left the family devastated and confused.
The victim’s aunt touched base with her brother, who is Madeline’s father, that morning and things seemed normal. He told her he had a Zoom work meeting and then was going to get a quick haircut before his manager shift at a nearby Bravo supermarket.
But her brother never made it to work. As he was getting his hair cut, he received a panicked call from his mother in the Dominican Republic, who had received a WhatsApp video call from Espinal.
“Karla did call my mom while the baby was in her arms,” the aunt said. “My mom says that the baby already looks like she was dead.”
Madeline’s dad raced home to discover a shocking scene. He desperately tried to revive the little girl while his father, who lives nearby and came running when he heard what happened, restrained the mom. The aunt said her panicked brother FaceTimed during the chaos.
“He was trying to revive her when he got there,” the aunt said. “I see Karla behind [my brother]. My dad is holding her because she’s trying to take the baby from my brother.”
EMTs soon arrived and rushed the girl to Brookdale University Hospital, where she was declared dead a little over an hour later.
“The defendant submerged [Madeline] in a bathtub leading to the death of the child,” Assistant District Attorney Ari Rottenberg said during Espinal’s Feb. 9 arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court. “The defendant was baptizing the defendant’s daughter.”
Espinal was ordered placed under psychological supervision and on suicide watch as she is held without bail on Rikers Island.
The victim’s father has been inconsolable ever since.
“He said, ‘She killed my baby,’” the aunt said of her brother, who has two surviving children and a stepchild. “He couldn’t even talk.”
“Madeline was always with my brother, except when he was working. He’s still going through it,” she added. “To him, it’s work and take care of his kids. Whatever time he had free he would take with his kids.”
Madeline, his youngest child, was just shy of turning 7.
“We literally buried her two days before her birthday,” the aunt said. “He was an amazing father to her. My brother took her to school every day so his mornings are [now] rough. His nights are rough because now she’s not coming to bed to say, ‘Daddy, I love you.’”
“He has so many questions and so many emotions,” she added. “All I want to do is ask Karla, why?”
When Espinal and the girl’s father first got together they lived with the aunt.
“Karla was very quiet, shy,” the aunt said. “When she lived with me she spent a lot of time in [her] room. She didn’t really talk a lot.”
Espinal is Catholic and Madeline’s father’s family is Christian but it had never seemed an issue. The aunt would not describe Espinal as being religiously fanatic and was unaware of any history of mental illness.
“I cannot sit here and say she was a bad mom,” the baffled aunt said. “She was good to my niece. [Madeline] was a very happy girl.”
The aunt, who helped deliver Madeline when she was born, told The News her niece was always clean and well fed and that Espinal always helped the girl complete her homework.
“She was a very very smart, sweet girl,” Madeline’s aunt said of the victim. “She loved her father. That was her everything.”
“He calls her his little Sheepy because that’s what she calls him, her Sheepy,” she added. “She likes sheep.”
Espinal pleaded not guilty to the assault indictment on March 12, holding a copy of a Good News bible in her handcuffed hands. Her lawyer, Jennifer Kovacs of Legal Aid, requested a mental fitness exam based on her interactions with Espinal to determine if she understood the court proceedings. Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Donald Leo granted the request.
Espinal is due back in court May 15, when the judge will get the results of her mental health exam.
Madeline’s family hopes Espinal ultimately faces upgraded charges.
“The right justice needs to be served in my niece’s name,” the aunt said. “This is an innocent kid, 6 years old, who cannot defend herself.”
With John Annese