Westchester County District Attorney

111 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.
White Plains, NY 10601
Tel: (914) 995-3586
Fax: (914) 995-2116

March 28, 2017 -- Westchester County District Attorney Anthony A. Scarpino, Jr. announced today that  Deasia Bartee (DOB 01/09/90) of 210 Washington St., Mount Vernon, NY was sentenced to nineteen years in state prison by Judge Barbara Zambelli after having pled guilty to:  

• one count of Manslaughter in the First Degree, a class “B” Felony

in the death of Samia Yusuf (DOB 05/24/15).

On Aug. 5, 2016 at approximately 5:21 a.m., a 911 call was received by the City of Mount Vernon Police Department for an unresponsive child who had died in her sleep.

The officers responded to 210 Washington St. where they found the victim, fourteen-and-half-month-old Samia Yusuf in a play pen. She was on her back with her arms rigid pointing towards the ceiling. Her left eye appeared to be swollen shut. The victim had no pulse and was lifeless. She was extremely cold to the touch.

The victim was taken to Mount Vernon Hospital and pronounced dead on arrival. The ER doctor who examined her told the police that the child was unusually cold and stated his belief the child had been dead for some time and may have been refrigerated as she was in an advanced state of decomposition.

The defendant, who was interviewed by detectives, implicated herself in the death of her child. She stated that she repeatedly struck the victim on the back with her hand. She was placed under arrest.

An autopsy conducted by the Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the victim’s cause of death as blunt force trauma of the body with a fracture dislocation of the lumbar spine and internal bleeding. Samia Yusuf was significantly underweight and malnourished and although fourteen and a half months old at the time of her death, weighed only fourteen pounds.  

Defendant was remanded into the custody of the New York State Department of Corrections.

Assistant District Attorney Doreen Lloyd and Assistant District Attorney Mary Clark-DiRusso of the Special Prosecutions Division prosecuted the case.