A Bronx 4-year-old fell to his death from his family’s 10th-floor apartment because of a broken lock on the balcony door, according to a lawsuit.
Yandra Minaya, 35, was getting her 11-month-old daughter ready for a bath when she realized she couldn’t hear her son, Jayden, in the other room.
The mom panicked and began calling the boy’s name — then saw the balcony door open, her husband Edward Castillo told The Post.
Minaya looked over the rail to see her young son had jumped, and his body on the ground outside their Noble Avenue building.
He died from his injuries three days later.
“My wife, she loved our son so very much,” Castillo, 33, told The Post through a translator, choking up.
“If it wasn’t for our daughter, she would have gone after our son,” he added, noting he had been at work at an auto body shop during the July 24, 2021 tragedy.
The family had been in the apartment just two weeks, Castillo said.
The dad said he had called the building’s property manager, SimplyBetter Apartment Homes, “two to three days” after moving in to have the defective lock fixed.
“They told us that they were going to bring someone to come fix it, and they brought someone to work on the bathroom,” Castillo said. “They didn’t touch the door.”
The family, which is seeking unspecified damages, is suing SimplyBetter and landlord NYSANDY6 Noble LLC in Bronx Supreme Court for negligence for failing to fix the lock or post warnings.
“This is such a common occurrence New York landlords have been cited for a hundred times,” said Joseph Ginarte, the couple’s lawyer. The landlords “lawyer up, and they keep kicking the can down the road.”
Jayden’s death has taken a toll on his parents, who suffer depression, Castillo said.
After his son’s death, Castillo said he cried so much at the auto body shop, he had to quit, and has been out of a job since.
“My life has changed, like a complete 180,” Castillo said. “Me and my wife, we were happy with our lives.
“We had a boy and a girl…Now that we have only one, it’s kind of a reminder that [Jayden] is not here with us.”
SimplyBetter and NYSANDY6 did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
