Last year, a severely malnourished 4-year-old girl—weighing a scant 18 pounds—was found dead in her Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment with bruises all over her body. A blame war ensued over the death of Marchella Pierce, but mother Carlotta Brett-Pierce was arrested and charged with her death. Today, prosecutors argued that it was essential to their case to let Brett-Pierce's six-year-old son, who previously told authorities that his mother forced pills down his sister’s throat and beat her with a belt, testify. "He needs to be left alone," Brett-Pierce blurted out in court. "Just leave him alone!"

Prosecutor Jacqueline Kagan said 6-year-old Tymel's testimony would be a key witness, able to show his mom's "depravity" and "reckless conduct." "That's ridiculous, she doesn't have a leg to stand on," Brett-Pierce interjected. "This is my life, and they're saying I did things I didn't do." Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Patricia DiMango said she could throw Brett-Pierce out of the courtroom, but allowed her to speak instead because “it’s important that the record reflects who you really are.”

DiMango and Kagan discussed whether Tymel should testify on closed circuit TV before trial begins April 10; DiMango said she'd make her decision in the next few days. The discussion began after social worker Maria Rivera testified that Tymel still images talking and playing with his sister: "He's too young to understand the permanence and what happens when you die...He still is trying to understand where his mother is and what happened to Chella," Rivera said. "He misses his sister very much."

Earlier this year, Detective Matthew Lamendola testified at a hearing that Brett-Pierce admitted to him that she tied up the little girl several times: “Her words were, ‘She was acting crazy and her little ass was wilding out.’” In addition to Brett-Pierce, grandmother Loretta Brett has been charged with manslaughter. Two former Administration of Children's Services (ACS) employees were indicted on charges of criminally negligent homicide, which was the first time in state history that welfare workers were charged with the death of a child. The ACS Commissioner during the incident, John Mattingly, also resigned, though supposedly not because of the scrutiny his agency came under in the wake of Marchella's death.