Brooklyn baby dies at home three months after a judge released her back to her abusive parents who l

A Brooklyn baby girl has died three months after being returned to the care of her abusive parents, a couple who'd lost custody of her after taking her to the hospital when she was three-weeks-old with broken ankles, a fractured skull and a brain hemorrhage. 

Ella Vitalis, one, was pronounced dead on September 20 at Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn, five days after her parents Lafayette Browne, 29, and Johnson Vitalis, 28, called 911 claiming she'd choked while her father was feeding her. 

De Blasio-appointed Judge Erik Pitchal allowed the girl to return to her parents

She had blunt force injuries on her head, bruising and cuts on her forehead and she had swollen eyes. 

Doctors also noticed what looked like bite marks, and she appeared to have a broken jaw.  

Her mother claimed it was all the result of her drinking 'too much milk'. Details of her death and the horrific abuse she suffered beforehand were today exposed by The New York Times. 

Neither of her parents has been charged or arrested, but the NYPD confirmed to DailyMail.com that the child's death is being investigated as a homicide.  

The couple had only just regained custody of her, bringing her home on June 15 after De Blasio-appointed Judge Erik Pitchal signed off on them living together again. 

They had been separated for a year because in August 2022, doctors took note of Ella's severe injuries when she was just three weeks old. Her parents had brought her and her older brother, Liam, to the hospital after police were called to their apartment on a domestic disturbance call. 

She and Liam entered the foster care system but their father was allowed to have visits with them. 

The girl was found unresponsive in an apartment in this building in Brooklyn on September 15

In September, a month after the incident that separated them, Johnson left the baby - then only one month old - with a bloodied mouth during a visit that was supposed to be supervised by his mother, Elsa. 

It was so severe that a doctor ruled a sharp object must have been used to cause the 'moderate' amount of blood loss. 

In June this year, Judge Pitchal agreed to let the child live with her parents again despite the harrowing history of abuse. 

Between June and September, when Ella died, the parents failed to bring her to a single check-in appointment. 

Ella was on life support for five days before she was pronounced dead. 

She suffered a brain bleed from a skull fracture. 

Now, there are growing questions over why Judge Pitchal thought the parents were fit to take her home. 

Judge Pitchal, a Yale graduate who was appointed to the bench in 2013. 

The Brooklyn Family Court where he works did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday. 

The New York City Administration of Child Services, which had requested for the children to stay in foster care, did not respond either. 

One of their representatives told the Times deciding where to place a child was not 'an exact science'. 

It remains unclear if Liam, the other child, is still being looked after by the couple. 

A male relative declined to comment on the case when reached by DailyMail.com on Tuesday.  

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