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IRVINGTON — Moments after watching a cell phone video of her goddaughter dancing in a dress, Mary McCoy stared long and hard at the woman accused of causing the girl’s death.
"I wanted to just look at her, and let her look at me," said McCoy, who had been called "Mommy Number Two" by 8-year-old Christiana Glenn.
Christiana’s mother, Venette Ovilde, appeared for the first time in Superior Court in Newark on Wednesday, speaking barely above a whisper as she pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated manslaughter and child endangerment in the death of her daughter.
The 29-year-old Irvington woman, accused of neglecting her daughter so badly that the girl died last month of an untreated broken femur and malnourishment, kept her eyes cast down through the short proceedings. She muttered a nearly inaudible "yes" when Judge Joseph Vasquez asked her if she understood the charges against her.
Ovilde’s roommate, 24-year-old Myriam Janvier, pleaded not guilty to endangerment.
Christiana was found dead inside of the family’s Chancellor Avenue apartment on May 22. Ovilde’s 6-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter had been suffering from injuries and severe malnourishment when police took them from the home last month.
Both children remain in intensive care at University Hospital in Newark, said Assistant Prosecutor William Neafsey, who is trying the case.
"The more you think about it, the less you understand it," said Chanell Fields, McCoy’s daughter.
While Janvier was dressed in green prison garb, Ovilde appeared in an all-white dress suit, clothing eerily similar to the bleached garments and robes worn by members of the "Walking With Christ" religious sect she joined three years ago.
Ovilde’s attire caught the attention of relatives in the gallery who say the faith caused a sudden shift in Ovilde’s personality and may have played a role in Christiana’s death.
"To be honest, I was shocked. I’m not going to lie to you. I thought she would get rid of the outfit because of the pastor," said her sister Millyan Ovilde, 35.
Talk of the unorthodox faith hovered in the courtroom Wednesday, as Ovilde was introduced as Krisla Rezireksyon Kris, the same last name of the pastor who relatives say led a small congregation inside her Irvington apartment. The pastor, Emanyel Rezireksyon Kris, ordered his followers to fast extensively, to cut contact with their families and told them not to attend school or hold a job, relatives have said.
The fasting rules were so extreme that Rezireksyon Kris told members of his congregation not to swallow their own saliva, referring to it as "poison," said Marie Charles, Janvier’s cousin.
Ovilde told Fields the pastor considered the swallowing of saliva a "sin" in violation of the faith’s fasting rules.
Rezireksyon Kris has not been charged and authorities have not discussed his role, if any, in the criminal investigation. The case will move to a grand jury later this year, according to Neafsey.
Fields said she was frustrated with Ovilde’s relatives Wednesday, and wondered why they didn’t intervene as Ovilde fell deeper into her religion and her children’s condition worsened over the past year.
"I told them these kids were getting smaller… I saw them in November, even Venette was very thin," said Fields. "It could have been prevented."