Officers found the child already dead when they arrived at a home near Aspen Place and State Street around 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, July 15, according to a news release from the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office.
The child’s mother, Nakija Martin, was also in the home and had unsuccessfully attempted suicide, officials said. Investigators believe Martin had intended to kill her son, who was autistic, the prosecutor’s office said in a news release. The exact cause and manner of the boy’s death are pending autopsy results, authorities said.
Martin was charged with second-degree endangering the welfare of a child on Monday, July 29, following an investigation by the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Special Victims Unit, officials said. If convicted, she faces five to 10 years in state prison…