By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — A jury is deliberating in the trial of a man charged with hurting a three-year-old girl when he ripped a gold chain off her neck in a public housing apartment building in East Harlem last year.
Anthony Faison, 33, said he approached the child on the 13th floor of her apartment building at 60 E. 106th St., according to court documents.
When three-year-old Mariah Rodriguez, who was reportedly developmentally disabled, was found on June 6, 2009 after wandering off on her own for an hour, she had a bruised neck and was not wearing a diaper, Faison's criminal complaint says.
Faison, an ex-con, may have tried to sexually assault Rodriguez, but investigators believe he was interrupted when neighbors searching the building for the little girl found her with him, the New York Post reported.
Faison's lawyer argued during his closing that DNA evidence used against his client was mishandled and that he was coerced into confessing, the Post reported.
He was charged with attempted robbery, assault and endangering the welfare of a child.
