Prosecutors have accused a Queens, New York, man of beating his 3-year-old stepdaughter so barbarically that her stomach was shred to pieces during the fatal attack.
Marc Jenkins, 32, appeared in court Wednesday on charges that he beat Bella Edwards to death on Monday afternoon. According to the New York Daily News, authorities believe Jenkins viciously beat Edwards in his car, resulting in the little girl bleeding to death.
In court, Assistant District Attorney Leigh Bishop revealed that the toddler girl was subjected to an attack so barbaric that the little girl was reduced to “blood and other parts” after it was over.
“It’s really hard to imagine a more violent and horrifying scene,” Bishop said. “Parts of her abdominal area were literally ripped apart.”
After learning of the gruesome details surrounding Edwards’ death, several family members became so upset that they were escorted out of the courtroom, according to WPIX.
“Feed him to the wolves!” a male relative of the victim hollered.
“The monster!” a woman screamed in court.
“She was 3-years-old!”
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Jenkins was charged with second-degree depraved murder and first-degree depraved assault after an autopsy determined that Bella Edwards died from blunt force trauma to her abdomen.
Tests are still being conducted to determine whether the toddler was sexually abused, the Daily News reported Wednesday.
Jenkins is believed to have been watching Edwards and her 3-month-old brother alone for eight hours on Monday. Edwards’ mother, Shamikaa Gonzalez, claimed that she left the Queens apartment at around 9 a.m. and returned at 5 p.m.
The mother told the Daily News that she found her daughter unconscious in her bed a half-hour after getting home.
The slain child’s father, Kellon Edwards, 35, recently told the New York Post that he learned of his daughter’s death through a Facebook post made by another family member.
“I didn’t hear anything from [Gonzalez] until 7 a.m. today,” Edwards told the Post Wednesday. “Nobody told me anything and, when she did reach out, she told me she was ‘sorry.’”
Alarmingly, this isn’t Jenkins’ first brush with the law. Reports indicate that Jenkins served five years in prison for attempted murder and was paroled in 2011.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce revealed to the Daily News that police were called to the home in June and late January to handle disputes between Gonzalez and Jenkins. Boyce said that no arrests were made on either occasion and there was no evidence that Jenkins was violent toward Gonzalez or his previous girlfriend.
[Featured Image: Marc Jenkins/New York Police Department; Bella Edwards/WPIX]
