Crime & Safety
Murdered 18-Month-Old's Mother Faces Criminal Charges
Nakia Adams, 28, was arraigned on Monday on a charge of child endangerment.
Last week a Bristol man was sentenced to life in prison after he pleaded guilty to murder in the death of an 18-month-old Bensalem girl. This week the mother of the child is facing criminal charges for child endangerment, police say.
Nakia Adams, 28, was arraigned on Monday before Bensalem District Judge Leonard Brown on a charge of endangering the welfare of children, and was released on $75,000 unsecured bail, an article on PhillyBurbs said.
Patch previously reported that Bucks County District Attorney David Heckler said that the child was abused for "weeks if not months" prior to the incident that led to the her death. Then in court on Jan. 29 when , prosecutor Matt Weintraub said that the Adams missed obvious signs that her daughter was being abused.
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Since then Bensalem police have said that Adams knew that her boyfriend, Allen, had physically abused her daughter before he fatally injured her nearly a year ago, PhillyBurbs reported. Police also said that Adams lied about how the injuries happened and neglected to get the child prompt treatment, according to the article.
Patch reported in March that Allen had been babysitting Barbara Adams and her two sisters at the Creekside Apartment complex on the 2500 block of Knights Road in Bensalem on the weekend of Feb. 24 to 26, 2012 when she sustained severe head trauma. The mother was out of town when the incident occurred. On Feb. 26 when she returned, she said she found her daughter unresponsive in her crib and took her to St. Mary Medical Center. The child was then flown to St. Christopher’s Hospital, where she died .
Find out what's happening in Bensalemwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Heckler said the 18-month-old girl had broken ribs, a broken arm and leg, cigarette lighter burns, a bite mark on her arm and bruising all over her body, according to an autopsy conducted by forensic pathologist Ian Hood.
The PhillyBurbs article also details several other trips to area hospitals where Adams neglected to point out all of her daughter's injuries and lied about who had been babysitting when the injuries were sustained.
Adams' two other daughters are currently in the custody of their grandmother after Bucks County Children and Youth Social Services removed the girls from their home, the article said.
