Kaseem Bruno, the man convicted of child abuse who, in 2010, police said choked his two-month-old daughter to death with an electrical cord, was in court Thursday on charges he assaulted a housemate holding her infant child, then pressed a knife to her throat — all because she asked that he move out.
The roommate asked Bruno to vacate the Bovoni apartment Aug. 1 because he was not on the lease, according to court records. This could, she said, cause problems with the Housing Authority. Bruno, 33, “became agitated and began making statements about how no one is helping him and all the terrible things that have happened to him throughout the course of his life.”
The roommate, holding her 1-year-old son, asked Bruno to calm down. He grabbed her neck. She struggled to breathe or speak even after he released his grip, she told police. Bruno, who is 5 feet 10 inches tall and 180 pounds, then pushed the woman and infant into the child’s bassinet.
Bruno later apologized and asked to talk. When the roommate again suggested he move out, he choked her, pinned her down with his knees, and pressed a large knife against her throat, according to a charging document against Bruno.
With her telephone dead, she and her son, fearing Bruno, waited until morning before fleeing to the Family Resource Center, a Charlotte Amalie emergency shelter, according to court records.
Police didn’t find Bruno at the Bovoni apartment Aug. 2. They published a wanted poster for Bruno Sunday and he was arrested Wednesday, charged with assault and battery, use of a dangerous weapon, and other offenses.
Born in New Jersey, Bruno, who left school after the 8th grade, was 19 when he and the 18-year-old mother of his child were charged with first-degree murder in the death of 2-month-old Kailiah Bruno.
The pair initially told police tiny Kailiah had choked to death on milk, suggesting bruises were the result of sleeping in a necklace. But police noted the parents had waited overnight to alert authorities and had not sought the help of neighbors. An autopsy revealed other trauma to Kailiah’s body and head. Charges were dropped against the mother when she told investigators Bruno had choked the child several days earlier with an electrical cord. Bruno had been trying to keep the baby quiet because police wanted him on other felony charges, according to court records. The baby lived in agony for a final few days, she told police, with noticeable neck injuries.
Charges against Bruno were eventually reduced to aggravated child abuse. He pleaded not guilty, then guilty. Then, once convicted, he appealed in 2012 saying he’d not meant to plead guilty. The appeal failed. He was sentenced to 11 years. The Virginia Department of Corrections labeled Bruno a violence risk but paroled him in September 2020. Bruno was to be monitored by the court until April 2027.
Thirteen months after Bruno’s release, in October 2021, he was charged with repeatedly punching an intimate partner and smashing her possessions into the ground. Charges were dropped March 9, 2023.
Bruno was advised of his rights in the most recent arrest on Thursday. A woman signed a custodial agreement to have Bruno live in her Oswald Harris Court apartment if he was to be released. She identified Bruno as her “boy friend.”
