A 12-year-old woman who managed to outlive being brutally crushed and tortured by her stepfather inside her Bronx condo remains to be wrestling with the horrific fallout. She seems to have regressed in age, wants beauty surgical procedure and is dealing with extreme emotional trauma, the woman’s mom advised the Day by day Information in an unique interview.
However for all of the challenges dealing with her, Divine Nieves has made a outstanding restoration from the nightmarish assault that just about ended her life, her mom stated.
“She’s so robust,” stated 31-year-old Karizma Dabney. “Quite a lot of girls wouldn’t survive that. There are such a lot of tales the place a mom and her youngster didn’t make it out of the home, as a result of the person killed the mother and the kid.
Dabney posted a TikTok video of the woman dancing alongside her mom to the music “Nonetheless Alive” below the caption “Tried to homicide me and my child.”
“I’m simply so pleased with her,” Dabney stated.
Joshua Burnside, 29, gouged out his stepdaughter’s proper eye with a spoon and pierced her lungs with a knife earlier than driving a 6-inch-long needle by way of her nostril and into her mind throughout the explosive match of violence at his household’s E. 173rd St. condo close to West Farms Street in Crotona Park East on Oct. 22, police and Dabney stated.
Burnside, who was estranged from his spouse, was arraigned on an indictment earlier than Bronx Supreme Court docket Justice Alvin Yearwood Wednesday for tried aggravated homicide, tried homicide, assault, tried assault, endangering the welfare of a kid and felony possession of a weapon. He pleaded not responsible to all fees.
Burnside inflicted the horrific torture on his stepdaughter after stabbing Dabney, his spouse, within the torso, slashing her face and breaking her jaw, earlier than locking her out of her sixth-floor condo, she stated. The explosion of violence, she stated, was sparked by her refusal to let Burnside return to the house.
“I used to be banging on everybody’s doorways,” stated Dabney. “Just one individual answered on the primary flooring and referred to as the police. For me to be on the sixth flooring, it should have been a while earlier than I obtained to the primary.
Whereas Dabney was was shut out, Burnside stabbed his stepdaughter with two knives, a fork, a crochet needle, a spoon, tongs and a plate, all whereas telling the woman her mom was guilty for the savage assault, Dabney stated.
“My daughter advised me, he stated, ‘The explanation that is taking place to you is as a result of your mom doesn’t love me,’” Dabney advised The Information.
Burnside’s youngsters with Dabney, a 5-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter, witnessed the assault on Divine, their mom stated.
When police arrived, they discovered the phrases “I’m sorry” scrawled in Divine’s blood on partitions within the condo’s tub and dwelling rooms, Dabney stated.
Medics rushed Divine to Jacobi Hospital in important situation, the place she complained of complications whereas drifting out and in of consciousness, Dabney stated.
Joshua Burnside, 29, gouged out his stepdaughter’s proper eye with a spoon and pierced her lungs with a knife earlier than driving a 6-inch-long needle by way of her nostril and into her mind throughout the explosive match of violence at his household’s E. 173rd St. condo close to West Farms Street in Crotona Park East on Oct. 22, police and Dabney stated.
“[My daughter] remembers being in an excessive quantity of ache and never with the ability to breath, her lungs have been punctured, and he or she was telling the docs her head damage,” the woman’s mom stated. “No person knew there was a nail there.”
As a result of risks related to the process to take away the needle, docs needed to wait till Divine’s mom, whose wounds additionally required surgical procedure, was acutely aware to approve the operation, she stated.
Divine was transferred to Cohen Youngsters’s Hospital in New Hyde Park, the place surgeons efficiently eliminated the item from her head, however harm to the woman’s mind modified the best way she acts, her mom stated.
“[Divine is] set again a couple of yr or two behind, not with college work, simply character,” stated Dabney. “She’s very youngster like. She’s 12, however she acts like a 9 or 10 yr outdated.”
Divine can miraculously nonetheless see out of her broken proper eye, however the assault left her disfigured. Dabney stated the household is having a tough time getting Medicaid to pay for the beauty surgical procedure she must right the broken eye. She’s created a GoFundMe to assist pay for medical bills. The Heart for Medicare and Medicaid Companies didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Whereas Dabney’s eldest bares the plain bodily scars of the assault, her whole household is now struggling to heal from the emotional trauma they’ve endured.
“My youngest, she wakes up each night time, screaming ‘Don’t damage me.’ My oldest daughter, she’s not sleeping in any respect,” stated Dabney. “Each time I stroll out of the toilet, she jumps out of the chair like a stranger walked into the home. Everybody’s on excessive alert.”
Dabney’s son specifically is disturbed by the assault, his mom stated.
“He had a nostril bleed… and he simply rubbed blood in all places on the wall,” stated Dabney. “He’s simply fascinated with the ache of others. He’s going the remedy now. We’re all going to remedy.”
Dabney and Brunside had been separated for round two years when, whereas visiting his household’s condo on Oct. 22, Burnside proposed transferring again in.
When she rejected the thought, she stated, he attacked.
“He wished to be nearer to me. He wished to manage me. He realized he couldn’t. I denied him from transferring in,” stated Dabney. “Then he attacked me.”
Burnside is being held with out bail. He’s due again in court docket on Feb. 23.
