Photo: Facebook
On Tuesday, Geraldine Perkins, 29, took the stand and told a Manhattan Supreme Court jury through tearsshe used the belt to beat her sonin order to protect her hands because she has Lupus, theNew York Daily Newsreports.
Perkins testified against her boyfriend, Rysheim Smith, who is on trial for second-degree murder in connection with thedeath of Zymere Perkins,NBC 4 reports.
At the time, in 2010, Perkins and Smith were investigated for allegedly using drugs and in later years often allegedly used corporal punishment to discipline Zymere.
On Tuesday, Perkins testified that she was kicked out of her own grandmother’s home for beating her son and forced to live in homeless shelters.
Perkins said she had a hard time raising her son.
“It was hard. I mean, I’m a single parent. I’m a new parent. I didn’t know how to raise him,” Perkins said while weeping. “I didn’t know what I was doing.”
Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up forPEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletterfor breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.
At one point, to help put food on the table, Perkins became a sex worker. She said she didn’t take away much from the mandatory parenting lessons held at the homeless shelter.
“Maybe I didn’t pick up on the lessons they were giving me,” she recalled on the stand. “I didn’t cherish it. I didn’t hold onto those lessons they taught me.”
Perkins and Smith met outside her old apartment building and within six months were dating. She said Smith took an interest in her son.
“He was wonderful. It was like he was a father figure for my child. He played with him. He cut his hair most of the time. He bought toys for him. He read the bible to him,” she said.
On Monday, Zymere’s former kindergarten teacher, Josefina Gutierrez, testified that she stopped calling the boy’s home to report misbehaviors because she was afraid it would lead to beatings.
Gutierrez recalled one day when Smith suggested she mention his name to Zymere anytime he misbehaved. When she followed his suggestion, a look of terror in Zymere’s eye made her never want to call his home again.
“I was afraid that every time I complained, [his mother] got upset and that was the reason that he came back with bruises,” Gutierrez told the jury.
If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go tohttp://www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
source: people.com
