Brutally neglected Manhattan 4-year-old boy, Jahmeik Modlin, weighed just 19 pounds before his death: prosecutors

The Manhattan mom charged with the death of her burned, malnourished 4-year-old son was ordered held on bail at her Wednesday arraignment — as prosecutors revealed the little boy weighed just 19 pounds when he died.

Authorities hit Nytavia Ragsdale, 26, with one second-degree manslaughter charge and three counts of endangering the welfare of a child for allegedly letting young Jahmeik Modlin slowly starve to death, according to a complaint filed in Manhattan Criminal Court.

“This child’s weight does not even appear within the growth percentiles,” Assistant District Attorney Heather Buchanan said in court. “He’s below any measurable percentile compared to other children at his age. The child had almost no fat in his body.”

Nytavia Ragsdale with little Jahmeik, who died Oct. 14.

“This condition was chronic,” she continued. “This is not a condition that occurred over a short period of time. This is a prolonged period of deprivation endured by this child.”

The prosecution called for her to be remanded; her defense attorney, Naomi Oberman-Breindel, Neighborhood Defenders of Harlem, asked that she be cut loose on supervised release, or given a $5,000 bail.

Instead, Judge Jay Weiner set her bail at $100,000 cash, $300,000 insurance bond or $300,000 partially-secured surety bond

The boy’s father, Laron Modlin, 25, has also been charged with the same crimes over his young son’s disturbing Oct. 14 death.

Modlin called the cops the day before at about 7:45 p.m. and told them that one of his children had slipped into unconsciousness.

When police arrived at the apartment off Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard near West 144th Street, they found little Jahmeik in the back of an ambulance with his mother.

An impromptu memorial set up for the little boy, who was starved to death over many months, prosecutors say. Matthew McDermott
Laron Modlin after his arrest. William C Lopez/New York Post

EMS brought him to Harlem Hospital, but doctors said the boy was suffering from severe malnutrition and was “likely going to die within the next day or so,” the complaint said.

Medical staff at the hospital also found a burn mark on the child’s chest, and added that he suffered from hypothermia, police sources said.

He was then brought to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital for end-of-life care — and he died at about 5:50 a.m. the next morning, the complaint said.

Although both parents claim they never denied Jahmeik or their other three kids food, the boy weighed only 19 pounds when he died — 80 pounds less than his mother believed.

Ragsdale during her perp walk, after her arrest. William C Lopez/New York Post
Jahmeik weighed just 19 pounds when he died, prosecutors said. William C Lopez/New York Post

She also said he’d been vomiting up his food for months — then eating his own vomit, the complaint said. So she only fed him “small portions at a time because he cannot keep food down and has diarrhea a few times a week,” she told police.

The father, Laron Modlin, told police he always gives his kids food when they want it.

And he said he “must not have noticed the condition of his son because he is often playing video games or on his phone,” according to the complaint.

Doctors who examined the other kids — ages 5, 6 and 7 — said they were also “severely malnourished,” similar to their departed brother.

Three of the four children Modlin’s, the complaint said — only the 7-year-old is not his, though he claimed he considers him a son and cares for him as such.

None of the kids have ever been vaccinated or attended school, the complaint said.

All three surviving children are in the hospital and on IV fluids because they can’t eat real food, Buchanan, the prosecutor, said in court.

“They’re not able to sustain any solids at this time,” she said.

The judge also granted prosecutors a restraining order for the kids, which limits the parents’ contact with their kids only to phone calls.

Ragsdale’s next court date is Oct. 18.