BRONX MAN INDICTED FOR MURDER OF 1-YEAR-OLD GIRL

Defendant Allegedly Fatally Punched His Girlfriend’s Baby in the Head; Admitted He Used “Heavy Hand”

Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark today announced that a Bronx man has been indicted for second-degree Murder and other related charges in the death of a one-year-old girl he allegedly punched in the head while she was left in his care by her mother. 

District Attorney Clark said, “Imani-Dior Monique Mitchell was an innocent child whose life ended in unthinkable violence. The defendant was entrusted with her care for less than an hour by her mother, who now must bear this horrible loss.” 

District Attorney Clark said the defendant, Jerome Thomas, 19, of Union Avenue, the Bronx, was arraigned today on second-degree Murder, first-degree Manslaughter, second-degree Manslaughter and Endangering the Welfare of a Child before Bronx Supreme Court Justice Alvin Yearwood. Remand was continued. He is due back in court on January 14, 2026. 

According to the investigation, on August 28, 2025, between 8:30 p.m. and 9:15 p.m., inside a Union Avenue building in the Melrose section, Le’Nesha Mitchell, 26, placed her child, oneyear-old Imani-Dior Monique Mitchell, in the care of the defendant while she went to the supermarket. When she returned, she found her daughter in bed, struggling to breathe with bruising on her face. Mitchell called 911 and the child was taken to NYC Health+Hospitals Harlem. She was found to have extensive subdural hemorrhaging and cerebral edema, which was causing her brain to herniate. 

The baby was transferred to New York Presbyterian /Columbia University Irving Medical Center where she underwent surgery in an attempt to relieve the pressure on her brain and was placed on life support. Imani-Dior was pronounced dead on September 5, 2025. Her injury was determined to be consistent with a direct forceful impact to the right side her head. The defendant allegedly admitted in a video-recorded statement that he hit Imani-Dior twice in the head with a “heavy hand”. 

District Attorney Clark thanked NYPD Detective Arelis Collazo of the Bronx Homicide Squad, Detective Paolo Ruiz of the 40th Detective Squad and Officer Yuliana Comas of the 40th Precinct.

An indictment is an accusatory instrument and not proof of a defendant’s guilt.