WORLD / Africa

Teen mon arrested for beating 3-year-old kid to death
(AP)
Updated: 2006-06-29 10:30

A teenage mother was arrested in the fatal beating of her 3-year daughter, police said.

Jessica Rosado, 18, was charged Wednesday with manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and endangering the welfare of a child after the medical examiner ruled her daughter's death a homicide. Her boyfriend, Ruben Pagan, 23, who is not the girl's biological father, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child and criminal possession of marijuana.

Rosado and Pagan were in police custody late Wednesday and were unavailable for comment.

There was no telephone listing for Rosado or Pagan at the home address provided by police. A phone number for a Ruben Pagan at a nearby address was unlisted.

Authorities responded to the Brooklyn home of the victim, Kiana Rosado, at about 10 a.m. Tuesday when a neighbor reported that the girl had stopped breathing.

The girl was taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in Queens, where she was pronounced dead.

An autopsy found that the victim died from a severe blow to the torso that lacerated her liver. The girl had other injuries that were in "various stages of healing," medical examiner's spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said.