A neighbor could hear him screaming at the little girl while she was in the bathtub.

A family friend saw him backhand the 3-year-old in the stomach when she interrupted his video game.

A social worker assigned to protect her saw she had a broken arm and a mysterious burn, but the worker still recommended that the girl remain in the home.

And that is where Valeeya Brazile was killed on Feb. 5 – one in a series of Sacramento children to die this year of suspected abuse or neglect, despite intervention by Sacramento County's Child Protective Services.

The case starkly illustrates the worst that can happen when the agency falls down on its job. But the tragedy also reveals a web of adults who knew or suspected that something was terribly wrong in Apartment 2 of the Northridge Terrace Apartments in Fair Oaks, but did or said nothing.

Until it was too late.

"She didn't have to die," said Sacramento Sheriff's Sgt. Jeff Reinl, who heads the child abuse unit that is investigating the case. "People could have recognized – and probably should have recognized – that things were not right in that household."

The mother's boyfriend, 20-year-old Thomas Jerome Martin, was arrested in June. Martin has denied causing Valeeya Brazile's death, court documents show, but the 6-foot-2, 190-pound man has been charged with murder and assault on a child causing death and is awaiting trial in the Sacramento County jail.

The smiling little girl, who loved pancakes and beamed with pride when she pointed out the letter "V," is in a group considered society's most vulnerable: children age 5 and under. These are the children who have limited, if any, exposure to school and its many watchful eyes. They are the smallest and weakest and most dependent upon those who care for them. They keep their household's secrets.

"Those families, friends, neighbors and medical providers are the most vital link to keeping these kids safe," said Reinl.

Valeeya had all of them surrounding her, plus her own CPS worker, a court-appointed attorney and a juvenile court referee watching out for her.

In the end, none of that mattered.

Born into an unstable family life

Violence was part of Valeeya's family fabric even before she was born on April 7, 2004 at Mercy General Hospital in Sacramento, weighing 5 pounds 2 ounces.

Her father, Villie Lee Brazile Jr., was killed in August 2003 at his home in Victorville, where someone put two bullets in his head. Valeeya's older brother witnessed the killing.

Before the murder, an allegation of neglect was made about the family to San Bernardino County's child welfare agency on Jan. 2, 2003. Milicca "Mia" Holmes was pregnant when someone notified the agency that the mother-to-be was drinking and smoking marijuana daily, according to a CPS report filed with the juvenile court.

But CPS would enter the children's lives in a much bigger way in Sacramento on Oct. 27, 2006, when Valeeya was 2½ and her brother was nearly 4.

That day, the children were taken from their mother after police were called to a parking lot of a Northgate Boulevard garage. Police records indicate that Valeeya's mother went to the Jiffy Lube there to confront her boyfriend, an employee named Albert Seay.

A wild confrontation ensued in which Holmes allegedly bit Seay and keyed his brand new blue Cadillac. Reports said she also egged his car with eggs she had just received from the Women, Infants and Children program.

When police arrived about 9:40 a.m., they found Holmes smelling of alcohol (she later tested at 0.029, below the 0.08 legal limit). They also found Valeeya in the back seat of Holmes' car in a child seat that was not buckled in.

CPS was called, and soon Valeeya and her older brother were placed in a five-bedroom home in Elk Grove with foster mother Renita Horton.

Horton, 49, fondly recalls Valeeya's stay, which lasted less than four months.

"I never had any kids. Valeeya, she was like my little girl," said Horton, 49, who frequently dissolved into tears while discussing the girl.

Call The Bee's Marjie Lundstrom, (916) 321-1055.