The mother of Marchella Pierce—the severely malnourished 4-year-old girl who was found dead in her Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment with bruises all over her body—has been found guilty of murder. It took jurors an hour to convict 32-year-old Carlotta Brett-Pierce of beating, starving and drugging her daughter to death; Marchella weighed just 18.9 pounds when she died in September 2010. When asked if she understood that she was not to have any contact with her two surviving kids, Brett-Pierce snapped at the judge: “No, I don’t. I was charged falsely.”
Marchella Pierce
with a PowerPoint presentation in which they juxtaposed pictures of a seemingly healthy Marchella with ones showing her looking remarkably thinner and bruised. The prosecution showed evidence of drugs in Marchella's system, showed proof that she had been tied to her bed, and let jurors hear Brett-Pierce's prison phone calls in which she referred to her deceased daughter as "that bitch." "The words she chose to describe her show her disregard for her child's life," prosecutor Jacqueline Kagan said. "She couldn't be bothered with her. She didn't care."
The defense had argued that Marchella was born premature and with severe medical problems, and had been in and our of hospitals because of that: "Marchella didn't come home like a shiny apple," defense lawyer Alan Stutman told the jury. "Marchella came home and there were dents and bruises on her." He argued that welfare agencies neglected to follow-up with the family: "Ignorance and stupidity do not add up to depravity," he argued. "This is about a system that failed a dysfunctional mother." Brett-Pierce also claimed Marchella lost so much weight by running around in the heat, and blamed her bruises on a stairwell spill.
Ultimately, jurors were not swayed one bit. Brett-Pierce was found guilty of murder, assault, unlawful imprisonment and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child; she faces life in prison at her sentencing on June 6. Her lawyer vowed to appeal, and added: “I was very surprised that the jury came back that quickly."
