Licensed Home Healthcare Aide Accused Of Slowly Starving Autistic Uncle To Death
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A woman accused of letting her severely autistic uncle starve to death amid filth has been charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Naisia Norman, 22, of the Bronx, pleaded not guilty to charges relating to the 2012 death of 42-year-old James Thompson.
Norman, who worked as a home health aide, moved in with her disabled uncle to care for him after her grandmother died in 2010, CBS2's Steve Langford reported.
Norman collected her uncle's Social Security benefits, totaling $8,628 from February 2011 to February 2012, which she was supposed to use to buy him food and medical supplies, according to authorities.
But prosecutors allege that she neglected her uncle and spent just $722 on his food and medical supplies.
The 5-foot-8 Thompson died in June 2012 weighing just 70 pounds, down from 145 pounds in 2010, according to prosecutors.
Police officers who found Thompson's body told prosecutors the apartment was "filthy" and there were only bread crumbs and cake frosting in the home. Thompson also had a fractured arm and leg, prosecutors said.
A medical examiner later ruled Thompson's death a homicide, citing nutritional and medical neglect and signs of blunt force trauma, according to the district attorney's office.
A neighbor told Langford that no one suspected what was going on near them.
"It's creepy and scary -- it happened next door."
Norman was ordered held on $75,000 bail.
If convicted, Norman faces up to 15 years in prison.
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