27-year-old Kryzie King was arraigned Friday on multiple counts of assault and reckless endangerment.
She stared down at the floor as prosecutors described how she admitted to torturing the child.
Myls Dobson arrived at the Ritz Plaza apartments a healthy, smiling, 50-pound little boy.
But over three weeks at the hands of the 231-pound transgendered woman seasoned investigators call a savage, he died a sadistic, tortured death.
During a 12-hour interrogation, Kryzie King told astonished detectives how she brutalized the little boy, whom she'd agreed to watch for a few hours when his dad, her boyfriend, dropped him off.
But when hours stretched to days, and weeks, she said the boy stopped eat, so she hit him with a belt and an electrical cord.
She took the rack from a hot oven and held it against his leg.
She tied him to a chair and gagged his mouth.
Then, on Tuesday evening when it was nine degrees with a wind chill of minus 15, King told investigators she locked the 4-year-old on her 11th floor balcony wearing only a t-shirt and boxers for close to an hour.
And then, locked him in her bathroom in the dark.
By Wednesday, cops say Myls had lost more than 20 pounds, when King told police she watched his eyes flutter, as he took his last breaths.
Even then, she waited as long as an hour before calling 911.
"My client is presumed innocent throughout all of these proceedings. And that's the position we're taking. It's an ongoing investigation and nobody should rush to judgment at this early stage of this case," said Bryan Konoski, a defense attorney.
Adding to the tragedy, Myls' family picture. His dad O'Kee Wade never came back for him because he'd been arrested in New Jersey, on fraud charges.
His mother Ashlee lost custody three years ago while she was living in a homeless shelter.
Lately, she says, she'd been trying to get him back.
"I always wanted the best for my son. He was my baby," said Ashlee Dobson, the victim's mother.
The devastated mother broke down several times Friday at a news conference with family advisors. Sources familiar with the case tell Eyewitness News Ashley Dobson lost custody of the child in 2011 because of abuse and neglect allegations.
"This woman was in a financial situation that did not work out. She was not able to care for her child. The city of New York thought it best to put the child in the care of the father who was a convicted felon," said Tony Herbert, the mother's advisor.
Myls' mother says she last saw her child in November and he seemed fine. The boy's father, 32-year-old O'Kee Wade, a convicted felon, had custody. But after a new arrest in mid-December, he reportedly left Myls with his lover, transgender performer Kryzie King.
"This mother loved her child. She was working to get him back," Herbert said.
"I loved my son, he would give me kisses, I would tell him I loved him and he would say, 'I love you too, Mommy.' I said, 'Myls, I love you too baby,'" Dobson said.
"It's a tragic, tragic death of that young boy, horrific injuries sustained over a period of days," said Police Commissioner William Bratton.
The family says the father is on suicide watch.
Dobson lives in South Carolina, and on Thursday posted Facebook pictures of her son with the words "Mommy love you Myls. Rest in peace baby".
Investigators believe all the abuse suffered by Myls was at the hands of King, even though she only had custody since Dec. 18.
The father gained custody in 2011 following a custody dispute with his mother. She was facing abuse allegations in another state and threatened to kill herself in Brooklyn.
ACS assigned a case worker to the father for a year but pulled the worker in 2012 based on a lack of evidence.
