Murder of Zymere Perkins

Zymere Perkins was born June 21, 2010, in New York City to Geraldine Perkins. After his birth, Perkins and her infant son experienced periods of homelessness, and Perkins later testified she supported them through prostitution while moving between shelters. She admitted to beating Zymere with a belt during this period, an act witnessed by shelter staff who only warned her rather than reporting it.

In May 2015, Perkins met Rysheim Smith, who was twice her age, outside her shelter. The two began a relationship, and by that summer Perkins and Zymere had moved into a Harlem apartment where Smith was living without authorization. According to testimony, Smith had already begun abusing the child by this point. After the move, Zymere developed bedwetting and fecal incontinence, which Perkins admitted she and Smith punished through starvation, sleep deprivation, and beatings with sticks.

New York City's Administration for Children's Services (ACS) received multiple reports of suspected abuse in the year before Zymere's death. On June 30, 2015, Smith allegedly beat Zymere with a belt loudly enough to be heard outside the apartment; ACS took no court action, offering only parenting services that Perkins declined. In August 2015, a neighbor reported finding Zymere unattended and later reported a physical altercation with Perkins and Smith in the child's presence; ACS again did not intervene despite observing injuries. In February 2016, Zymere's school reported a possible broken jaw, facial scratches, and a missing tooth, with inconsistent explanations from Zymere and his mother; ACS took no action. A further report from the school in April 2016 led to a joint ACS-NYPD investigation, which concluded Zymere was not at imminent risk.

According to Perkins' testimony, earlier incidents included a July 2015 punishment in which Smith denied Zymere food, forced him into a push-up position, and struck him for uprooting plants, followed by hours of forced standing in a corner. In October 2015, after a school report that Zymere had asked another student to show him his penis, Perkins testified that Smith punched the child in the face, knocking out several teeth, and instructed him to lie about the injury's cause.

Perkins' great-aunt stated that Perkins called her approximately three weeks before Zymere's death expressing fear that Smith was "going to hurt" her or Zymere. Family members told The New York Times that Zymere had not returned to school for the 2016–17 school year. Zymere died on September 29, 2016, after a fatal beating, and was buried October 8, 2016, in Linden, New Jersey.

Geraldine Perkins pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter and was sentenced to two to six years in prison. Rysheim Smith was convicted after trial on all charges, including second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter, and sentenced to 25 years to life. The case prompted a state censure of ACS, the firing of several employees, and the resignation of ACS Commissioner Gladys Carrion.