Four-year-old Myls Dobson lost his life in the cruelest way. His bruised, emaciated tiny body was found Jan. 8 inside the bathroom of his babysitter Kryzie King’s luxury New York City apartment. Before succumbing to “child abuse syndrome, including dehydration,” according to the autopsy report and as reported in the New York Times, the 4-year-old had been starved, gagged, bound with electrical tape and repeatedly cut and burned with a hot oven rack.
King, the little boy’s accused killer, who goes by the name “Janaie Jones” and is transgender, was indicted Wednesday and arraigned Thursday before a Manhattan Supreme Court on upgraded charges of second-degree murder, seven counts of felony assault and one count of attempted assault related to the horrific death, the New York Post reports.
“The grand jury has charged this defendant with murder in the second degree,” said Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Nicole Blumberg before Justice Robert Stolz, according to the New York Post.
The original charge was just assault, reports CBS 2.
The new charges against King, which carry a maximum sentence of 25 years to life, come after Dobson’s death was officially ruled a homicide by the New York City medical examiner’s office in April, according to the New York Post.
King, 27, allegedly told police that she beat the boy and locked him outside on the 11th-floor terrace in only his underwear for almost an hour in the freezing cold, all because he was “misbehaving,” the New York Post reports. King became Dobson’s caregiver while his father, Okee Wade, the primary caregiver and King’s former boyfriend, was serving time in a New Jersey jail. The boy’s mother had previously lost custody for abusing him, the New York Post reports.
When a cornrowed King was asked to plea to the elevated charges, she mumbled, “Not guilty,” according to the New York Post. King is being held for an undisclosed illness in an infirmary on Riker’s Island on $250,000 bail.
The 4-year-old’s tragic death became the impetus for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to mandate a number of reforms to Child Protective Services in January, including requiring families to attend a hearing before court-ordered supervision ends and improving city access to online arrest databases, according to a January article in the New York Post. De Blasio went a step further in April and established the New York City Children’s Cabinet (pdf), a multiagency initiative to increase communication among city agencies and devise strategies to keep other children from harm.