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By Brendan McCarthySta� writer

In the early morning hours Sunday, a 3-month-old girl cried inside a tiny home in a forgotten part of town.

RyanJae Mitchell’s mother and father appar-ently weren’t around. She was alone with Angela Bernard — a stranger, sort of, with no bloodlines to this baby.

Bernard bought dia-pers and baby formula and nourished the under-fed, undersized child, Bernard’s relatives said.

“Just because,” they gave as her reason.

But sometime early Sunday, inside that brick house in the 4600 block of Flake Avenue, Bernard allegedly failed RyanJae.

She dropped the baby in the sink, according to police, and RyanJae wouldn’t stop crying. Bernard confessed to hitting the infant in the face, in the leg, and on the back, police said. And as the baby’s condition worsened, Bernard alleg-edly failed to seek medi-cal attention.

On Tuesday, Bernard, 39, was in jail, held with-out bond on charges of fi rst-degree murder and juvenile neglect.

Still, days after RyanJae’s death, the circum-stances of her last moments, and her life, seemed anything but clear.

A spokesman for the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services said Tuesday that the agency was conducting a joint investiga-tion with the New Orleans Police Department.

PAGE: A-1 Wednesday, May 2, 2012 Zone: New Orleans

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EDITORIAL B-4

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—

By Danny Monteverdeand Katy Reckdahl

Sta� writers

Authorities on Tuesday identified a bullet-riddled body found a day ear-lier in a secluded area of eastern New Orleans as that of a 15-year-old girl who, according to a relative, was the girl-friend of another teenager fatally shot last week in the Desire neighborhood.

A homeless person found Christine Marcelin’s body on Monday about 7 a.m. in the 5000 block of Alcee Fortier

Fatal shootings of students at KIPP Believe, both 15, could be linked

TEEN KILLED DAYS AFTER BOYFRIEND

—

By Ben Feller The Associated Press

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, AFGHANISTAN — On a swift, secretive trip to the war zone, President Barack Obama declared Tuesday night that after years of sacrifice the U.S. combat role in Afghanistan is winding down just as it has already ended in Iraq.

“We can see the light of a new day,” he said on the anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s death and in the midst of his own re-election campaign.

“Our goal is to destroy al-Qaida, and we are on a path to do exact-ly that,” Obama said in an unusual speech to America broadcast from an air base halfway around the world.

He spoke after signing an agree-ment with Afghan President Hamid Karzai to cover the decade after the planned final withdrawal of U.S. combat troops in 2014. Obama said American forces will be involved in

—

2 presidents sign troop withdrawal pact

Obama offers ‘light of a new day’ in surprise trip to Afghanistan

Christine MarcelinMight have witnessed dispute

Brandon AdamsAttacked on way home from park

SHOWCASED AT

MARDI GRAS INDIANS JAZZ

FEST 2012

SPORTS

LIVING

—

By John SimermanSta� writer

Orleans Parish District Attor-ney Leon Cannizzaro on Tues-day agreed to let a man convict-ed of rape go free after nearly 25 years in prison, conceding that a blood test conducted a few years ago rules him out.

Booker Diggins, 46, is likely to walk free after a few days, although Criminal District Judge Frank Marullo said Tues-day that he wanted fi rst to hear from the woman who identifi ed Diggins as the man who raped her in 1987 in a storage shed off the Riverwalk.

Cannizzaro’s offi ce and attor-neys for the New York-based Innocence Project reached an accord to vacate Diggins’ con-victions for aggravated rape, armed robbery and conspiracy to commit armed robbery. Dig-gins has agreed to plead to aid-ing and abetting an armed rob-bery, with a sentence to be set at 24 years — the time he already has served in prison. He would receive credit for time served.

Barry Scheck, the former O.J. Simpson attorney who directs the Innocence Project, lent Can-nizzaro praise outside the court-room after hours of negotiation.

”I think they’ve made reason-able and professional efforts to work with us to correct the prob-lems of the past,” Scheck said. “I think they’re doing the right thing here.”

Scheck said Diggins has agreed to an “Alford” plea, meaning he does not admit guilt but concedes prosecutors have enough evidence to convict him. Cannizzaro’s office has agreed

—

He already served25 years for rape

Blood test

rules out man in jail

—

‘Guardian’ arrested in a killing shrouded by question marks

N.O. infant is dropped

in sink, beaten

President Barack Obama gets a high-fi ve as he greets troops at Bagram Air Field, Afghani-stan, on Wednes-day.CHARLES DHARAPAK / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

“With faith in each other, and our eyes

fi xed on the future, let us fi nish the work at hand and forge a just and lasting peace.”PRESIDENT OBAMA IN HIS SPEECH TO THE NATION

TED JACKSON / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE

Students and teachers console one another Tuesday during a vigil for Christine Marcelin, 15, at KIPP Believe College Prep on Carrollton Avenue. One of Marcelin’s teachers called her ‘a very thoughtful person.’

3-month-old Ryanjae Mitchell was being cared

for by Angela Bernard, BELOW, whose relatives said the baby’s

parents are drug addicts

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Brandon Adams, 15, shot and killed Friday night Bullet-riddled body of

Adams’ girlfriend, Christine Marcelin, 15, found three days later in eastern New Orleans

See OBAMA, A-5

See BODY, A-6See BABY, A-6See DIGGINS, A-4