Last fall, we were horrified by the story of Marchella Pierce, a severely malnourished 4-year-old girl who died in her Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment, weighing a scant 18 pounds. A blame war ensued over who was to blame for the girls death, but mother Carlotta Brett-Pierce was arrested and charged with the death. Yesterday in court, she seemed far from guilty about her predicament: “I’m starving for this trial to start. I did not hurt my baby. I did not kill my baby.”
On the criminal complaint, the cause of death for Marchella Pierce is listed as, "child abuse syndrome with acute drug poisoning, blunt impact injuries, malnutrition and dehydration." Brett-Pierce, who pleaded not guilty, faces up to 25-years-to-life on charges of murder, manslaughter and assault. While Brett-Pierce maintains her innocence, the News reports that "very devastating" testimony from her five-year old son led to her grand jury indictment. Marchella was found with rope marks on her wrists and ankles, and police believe her mother beat her with a belt and buckle, and force-fed her sleeping pills.
Brett-Pierce got in trouble with the Judge in the case when he found out that she had sent letters to her kids, who are between the ages of one and five. She told the court in tears, "I said to them that I love them and I miss them. I'm extremely close to my children." But the Judge was unsympathetic: "If you violate that order of protection from today forward I will deal with it more harshly than you can think," Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Patricia DiMango told her.
