BRONX MOTHER SENTENCED TO UP TO SEVEN AND A HALF YEARS IN PRISON FOR MANSLAUGHTER IN THE DEATH OF HER FOUR-YEAR-OLD SON

Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced today that a 27-year-old mother was sentenced to a maximum term of up to seven and a half years imprisonment for her role in the beating death of her four-year-old son in January 2006.

Aleisha Smith pled guilty last month to one count of Manslaughter in the 2nd degree, admitting that she “recklessly caused the death” of Quachaun Brown by failing to obtain prompt medical attention for the child who had been beaten allegedly at the hands of her boyfriend. Smith delayed seeking medical treatment for the boy even though she had observed “multiple bruises to his head and body, frequent bleeding from the child’s ear and frequent vomiting of blood” as a result of the beatings. Smith was sentenced to a term of 2 ½ to 7 ½ years imprisonment by State Supreme Court Justice John Moore.

Jose Calderon, 18, who has been charged with Murder in the 2nd degree in the boy’s death, is still awaiting trial. Calderon, according to court papers, repeatedly beat Quachaun Brown in the head and body “by using his fists, a belt, a plastic bat, and by striking his head against a wall” during the course of several assaults that occurred between January 27, 2006 and January 20, 2006. The homicide occurred at the couple’s Kossuth Avenue apartment one day before the boy’s fifth birthday.

The case is being prosecuted by Senior Investigative Assistant District Attorney Astrid Borgstedt and Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey Gamils of the Child Abuse / Sex Crimes Bureau.