Harlem Man Faces Murder Charges In Killing Of 6-Year-Old: DA

HARLEM, NY — The live-in boyfriend of the mother of slain Harlem 6-year-old Zymere Perkins will be indicted on murder charges, prosecutors announced in court Tuesday.

Rysheim Smith, 42, will be arraigned Feb. 9 on the charges of second-degree murder, first- and second-degree manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child, a spokeswoman for the District Attorney's office told Patch. Proseuctors also requested that Smith, who was being held on $250,000 bail, be denied bail, which was granted, the spokeswoman told Patch.

Smith will be arraigned on Feb. 9 because he requested a new lawyer during a court appearance Tuesday, a DA spokeswoman told Patch.

Perkins was rushed to Mount Sinai Saint Luke's Hospital by his mother, Geraldine Perkins, on Sept. 26 suffering from bruises to his body and a contusion on his head, police told Patch. Perkins was pronounced dead the same day, police said.

The boy's mother told police that her live-in boyfriend Smith hit the boy with his hands and with a wooden broom stick the day of his death, according to a criminal complaint. The mother also told police that Smith had hung the boy from the back of their apartment's bathroom door by his shirt and had seen his body "go limp," according to the complaint.

Smith had become upset when he found out the boy had defecated in the apartment's living room, according to the criminal complaint.

A state report issued in December found that workers for the Administration for Children's Services (ACS) failed to protect Perkins on numerous occasions before the child was killed.

The scathing report from the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) found that the ACS did not conduct thorough investigations into alleged abuse of Perkins, did not follow regulatory standards and failed to intervene when it could have protected Perkins. The OCFS report analyzed five ACS investigations into Perkins' family — three indicated and two unfounded — that occurred between June 2010 and April 2016.

"The level of casework activity for all cases was insufficient and was particularly lacking given the family circumstances."

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio released a statement saying the report "uncovered a troubling series of lapses and missed opportunities in ACS’s failed effort to protect Zymere Perkins."

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