Jailed Jerome to face additional charges in New York City after baby he beat dies in the hospital

[Jaun Deere]

NEW YORK CITY - A baby girl in the Bronx on life support after her mother’s boyfriend repeatedly punched her in the head has died one week after being rushed to the hospital, police said Monday.

One-year-old Imani-Dior Monique Mitchell died Friday from injuries allegedly inflicted by Jerome Thomas, 19, on Aug. 28 while the baby’s mom was out getting groceries.

When LeNesha Mitchell returned to her apartment on Union Ave. near E. 152nd St. in the South Bronx after 45 minutes, she found her little girl laying on the bed semiconscious and struggling to breathe with her face and head badly bruised, especially around her left eye, she told police.

Thomas, Mitchell’s boyfriend of four months, admitted to police that he struck the little girl twice on the side of the head with a “heavy hand,” making her cry, the criminal complaint against him alleges.

“She was the light, she changed me,” Mitchell told the Daily News last week, bursting into tears.

“She made me feel more confident about myself as a first-time mother. I was learning from her. She was happy, smart, funny. Before I walked out that door to go to the supermarket, I picked her up. She reached her hands to me and gave me a kiss on my cheek. Then I came back to all of that.

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