At hearing, loved ones recall Camden homicide victim No. 24

To the record-keepers, Alma Reyes Brito is homicide victim No. 24 in Camden this particularly bloody year. But her loved ones put a face to that number in court and at an anti-violence rally on Tuesday.

Family and friends wore T-shirts bearing her portrait at a morning hearing where her 15-year boyfriend was ordered held on $ 2 million bail on charges he murdered Brito, 49, in early June.

Brito's body was found June 4 in a bedroom on the second floor of a home the couple had shared in the city's Fairview section. She died of blunt force trauma to the head and neck, according to authorities.

William W. White, 59, who was arraigned in Superior Court in Camden County, has said he beat Brito with a handgun on June 2, according to Camden County Prosecutor's Office. Brito's family wept and embraced when he entered the courtroom.

"I don't know why he did this to my baby," said her mother, Doris Malaeet, 68, in an interview after the arraignment. Seeing him at the hearing was "one of the hardest things I had to do," she said.

After the attack, White withdrew $ 500 from Brito's account at a Wawa ATM in Mount Ephraim, officials said. He then traveled to Florida, they said, where he eventually was found at a homeless assistance center in Homestead.

White was arrested July 8 on the outstanding theft warrant. He confessed to striking Brito with his gun and leaving her on the floor, according to authorities.

White was like a part of their family, relatives and friends have said in recent interviews. When Brito didn't cook for him, her mother did.

"We were so good to that man," said Malaeet, who wore a heart necklace imprinted with Brito's photo.

The couple's relationship had recently become strained, however. White, whose last full-time job was as a cook at a substance-abuse center, had struggled for nearly a year and a half to find steady work, family members said.

Brito, a counselor aide with Family First, a program with the Center for Family Services, had recently discovered he was lying about paying small bills and was not pulling his weight.

"She was losing trust in his word, but she had no intention of giving up on him," said Connie Kellum, a childhood friend whom relatives say is like kin. "Even though things were rough financially, she still worried about the welfare of William."

White had threatened to kill Brito if she broke up with him, relatives alleged in interviews with investigators. Brito's 27-year-old daughter, Delores Jones, said her mother considered leaving White, but couldn't see herself without him.

"She loved this man who took her life. He killed her; he killed a piece of us," Jones said.

The 4-foot-8 mother of three and grandmother of six, who was known as "Mita," juggled multiple jobs, picking up hours at two daycares to make ends meet.

Yet she always had the energy to go dancing on Sundays, said her family. Dancing was her "woosah time," said Kellum. Jones would set aside $ 20 each week for her mother to spend at the oldies night at Pennsauken's Savoy Night Club.

Sheets with bright-colored airbrushed portraits of the woman hung in front of her family's home on the 800 block of North 6th Street on Tuesday afternoon, as activists and community residents marched against the type of violence that claimed Brito.

Since her death, there have been more than a dozen others murdered in Camden. As of Monday, there had been 39 homicides in the city this year, compared with 26 during the same period in 2011, according to the Prosecutor's Office. Most of the year's homicides are believed to have been drug-related, authorities say.

The rally was the last of 18 stops in New Jersey organized by the National United Youth Council, which is campaigning for violence to be declared a public-health crisis.

Kellum looked at the handful of marchers, many carrying photos of loved ones lost to violence.

"It's not even about Mita anymore. It's about so many more people," she said. "This [turnout] is too small. This city needs a real march."

---

Contact Angelo Fichera at 856-779-3814 or afichera@philly.com, or follow on Twitter @AJFichera.

Read More @ Source

Criminal Stories Here