Photo Courtesy of Facebook
Bella Edwards
By Forum Staff
A Rockaway Park man has been charged with depraved murder in the death of a 3-year-old girl who was found unconscious and unresponsive in her family’s apartment Monday evening, according to Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.
Marc Jenkins, 32, has been charged with second-degree depraved murder and first-degree depraved assault. If convicted, he faces up to 25 years to life in prison.
According to the complaint, Jenkins was the sole adult in the Beach 105th Street apartment with Bella Edwards and her 3-month-old brother, Logan, for about eight hours on Monday. At approximately 6 p.m., Jenkins called 911, and when cops arrived they found the little girl unconscious and unresponsive.
NYPD officers rushed Bella to St. John’s Episcopal Hospital, where she later died.
“This feels like a bad dream I can’t wake up from,” Bella’s mom, Shamika Gonzalez, wrote on Facebook, courtesy of the New York Daily News.
The preliminary results of the autopsy showed indicated that Bella died as a result of blunt force trauma to her abdomen, with other medical studies pending, Brown noted.
“This is a terribly disturbing case,” he added. “The victim here is an innocent little girl, whose body revealed traumatic abuse injuries. The defendant – who resided with the child’s mother – now faces the possibility of life imprisonment.”
