2007 brought resolution – at least in court – to a 2006 child abuse case that shocked the Bronx and the city, when those responsible for the brutal beating death of 4-year-old Quachaun Browne were convicted and sentenced.

In July, Quachaun’s mother, Aleshia Smith, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and received a sentence of two-and-a-half to seven-and-a-half years in prison for failing to promptly seek medical help for the boy. Then came the trial of her boyfriend, Jose Calderon, who did the actual beating. Prosecutors in Calderon’s trial said he had struck Quachaun with a belt and hard plastic baseball bat and repeatedly slammed his head into a wall. The family’s apartment on Kossuth Avenue was literally steps away from North Central Bronx Hospital. The boy was eventually taken there for medical treatment but it was too late.

Calderon stood trial and was found guilty of manslaughter, but not murder, surprising even Calderon’s attorney, Edward Zismor, who had been preparing his client for the worst.

Zismor told the media that jurors had told him that they believed that Smith had also beaten Quachaun in the three days preceding his death despite prosecutors’ claims to the contrary.

Calderon was sentenced to 15 years in prison, but could have received more than 25 years if convicted of more serious charges.

Quachaun’s death came only three weeks after 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown died in Brooklyn in a similar incident that made citywide headlines for days. Both cases prompted calls for reform at the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS). Workers from ACS had been to Quachaun’s apartment several times prior to his death.