A Queens mother “callously” took a long shower as she waited for her 11-month-old son to suffocate in a bedsheet she wrapped tightly around his face and tiny body, a prosecutor said Thursday.
In a chilling confession to cops, Nicole Kelly said she watched her baby, Kiam Felix Jr., struggle to breathe inside their Elmhurst apartment before she took a 30-minute shower, according to a criminal complaint.
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When she returned to the child’s room and unwrapped the sheet, he was blue and unresponsive, Kelly told police. Instead of dialing 911, she said she “cleaned out all of his stuff from the apartment and dressed him in his suit.”
“(She) callously took an extra long shower,” Assistant Queens District Attorney Brian Hughes said at Kelly’s arraignment Thursday, charging she “intentionally suffocated” her baby.
Hughes suggested that Kelly, who turned 22 on Monday, was “thinking of her birthday” while her son was suffering a cruel death Sunday just three weeks before his first birthday.
Kelly, who is being held without bail, was arraigned via video hookup from her bed at Elmhurst Hospital, where she is being held without bail and undergoing medical and psychiatric treatment.
Defense attorney Scott Bookstein entered not guilty pleas on Kelly’s behalf to charges of second-degree murder and first-degree assault.
In her confession, Kelly admitted she came unhinged under the pressure of single motherhood.
“I was taking care of my son by myself for 11 months and getting overwhelmed,” Kelly told detectives at the 110th Precinct stationhouse in Queens.
On July 6th I snapped. I decided I was done being his only caretaker. I tucked his entire body underneath the sheet to make sure he couldn’t breath.
“On July 6th I snapped. I decided I was done being his only caretaker,” she said, according to the criminal complaint. “I tucked his entire body underneath the sheet to make sure he couldn’t breathe.”
Kelly’s confession came after she initially told detectives she found Kiam not breathing when she got out of the shower and tried to perform CPR.
After several interviews, she copped to the murder, saying, “I didn’t want the child. I reached my breaking point.”
The mother “admitted that she had previously decided that she no longer wanted the baby and did not want the baby to go to foster care,” Detective Ronak Patel wrote in the criminal complaint.
The child’s father, Kiam Felix Sr., rushed the boy to Elmhurst Hospital after finding his lifeless body when he went to Kelly’s apartment about 4 p.m. Sunday.
Police believe Kelly killed the child about noon on Sunday.
Bookstein said he’s suspicious of Kelly’s confession.
“The prosecution is based exclusively on statements purportedly made by Kelly ranging over a 24-hour period,” Bookstein said, adding that Kelly had been interrogated by several detectives before allegedly confessing.
