A New Jersey woman beat her boyfriend’s 4-year-old daughter to death, and the boyfriend helped her try to get away with it, authorities said Tuesday.
Ashanti Givens, 21, was charged with first-degree murder for the little girl’s death, according to the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office. She and her boyfriend, 21-year-old Givenchy Stewart, were both charged with child endangerment and hindering apprehension.
Stewart’s daughter, who has not been publicly identified, was found unresponsive at around 8:45 p.m. on May 6 inside Givens’ apartment in Paterson, about 13 miles west of Manhattan. The girl was transported to Saint Joseph’s University Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead at 9:33 p.m.
An initial investigation determined that Stewart and Givens had left the girl by herself “for significant periods of time on May 5 and May 6,” prosecutors said. Both were charged with child endangerment back in May for that decision.
Prosecutors said when the couple was interviewed afterward, they lied about their actions and the circumstances surrounding the girl’s death, according to NJ.com. An autopsy later determined she died from blunt force trauma, and investigators determined Givens was the one who beat her to death.
Givens and Stewart are scheduled for a joint arraignment on Sept. 8. Givens faces 30 year to life in prison on the first-degree murder charge.
The death of Stewart’s daughter was not the only violent incident involving a 4-year-old girl in Paterson in the past 13 months. In August 2024, another 4-year-old girl was stabbed multiple times, allegedly by her aunt. She survived the attack.
