Officer Erick Nolan testified he was dispatched to the three-bedroom apartment on Jan. 11, 2006, in response to a report of an unconscious child. He said he arrived to find a lifeless, skin-and-bones child with two black eyes, dressed in the sweat pants.
"She was very thin, emaciated," he testified.
The officer also described how Rodriguez went through the motions of reviving Nixzmary by pressing on her chest, even though she clearly was dead.
Then the witness was asked to unwrap the evidence - now notorious symbols of a case that shocked the city and sparked reforms in the child welfare system.
Prosecutors allege the 29-year-old former security guard disciplined Nixzmary by confining her to a grimy spare room where she was bound with the tape, tethered to the chair and forced to use the litter box as a toilet.
The defense has admitted Rodriguez bound and beat the victim to try to tame her unruly behavior toward her five younger siblings, but claims her "deeply, deeply disturbed" mother delivered the death blow.
If convicted, Rodriguez faces 25 years to life in prison. The mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, faces a separate murder trial expected later this year.
