Her stepfather is charged with beating her to death.
Eyewitness News reporter Tim Fleischer has been covering the trial from the beginning. He's at the courthouse in downtown Brooklyn with more.
Like a number of others, we are outside the courtroom: Forced to leave the courtroom by the judge.
Reporters and spectators are not being allowed to hear a secret witness. In fact, as this trial slowly enters its eighth week this is the only witness we will not see or hear.
What we do know is that the witness claims they fear for their safety, the judge ruling that only the jury and Cesar Rodriguez will hear their testimony in his trial on murder charges stemming from the brutal death of Nixzmary Brown, his 7-year old stepdaughter.
"No comment.." was all that Defense Attorney Jeffrey Schwartz had to say. "It's up to the judge. She runs the courtroom, not me."
Schwartz and the prosecutors are forced by a gag order not to talk about the secret witness. The defense calling the witness, claims they have evidence that Nixzaliz Santiago delivered the fatal blow that killed her daughter. It is unclear though just how this secret witness will bolster its case.
The secret witness finished their testimony. The judge promised we will receive an edited version of that testimony sometime in the next day or so.
