BRIDGETON – A city woman charged with beating to death and incinerating her 23-month-old son says she didn't do it.

Bridgeton resident Nakira M. Griner was arraigned Monday in Cumberland County Superior Court in connection with her son's death on Feb. 8.

New Jersey Public Defender Kimberly Schultz entered a not guilty plea for Griner, who was present for the hearing. Griner has been in custody since Feb. 9 and was indicted on June 19.

In court:Nakira Griner, charged with killing her son in Bridgeton, indicted by grand jury

Previously:Judge OKs mental fitness exam for mom of murdered Bridgeton toddler

Griner first told police that Daniel Griner Jr. had been abducted while he and his younger brother were out with her walking to a delicatessen. Police, however, searched the family home and quickly turned up badly burned human remains.

County Assistant Prosecutor Elizabeth Vogelsong said the remains were “significantly charred, which made it difficult initially to determine what had happened to the child.”

Vogelsong said the investigation determined that only Griner could have been with the boy at the time of his death.

“I will not go into significant detail, but there was a number of fractures,” Vogelsong, referring to an anthropological report. “One being blunt force trauma and the cause of death being homicide.”

Monday’s hearing before Judge Robert Malestein picked up where the case had stalled in July.

Malestein had agreed at that time to a defense request for a delay to allow Griner to receive a mental health evaluation. The defense has suggested since the case started that depression or some mental disorder was a trigger to what allegedly happened.

Malestein said the doctor’s report was received Thursday and determined Griner was sound enough to participate in court proceedings. That is a minimal standard but enough to allow her to be arraigned, he added.

“The more I delve into the discovery, the more I believe that to be true,” Schultz told the court. “So, I am in the process of, hopefully, obtaining an expert report and deciding where the next steps will take us, your honor.”

Schultz said she also will ask that any statement Griner gave to police be barred from use at trial.

The charges against Griner are: first-degree murder; second-degree endangering the welfare of a child; second-degree desecration of human remains; and fourth-degree tampering with evidence.

The prosecution team is Vogelsong and First Assistant Prosecutor Harold Shapiro.

Joe Smith is a Philly native transplanted to South Jersey more than 30 years ago. He is a former editor and current senior staff writer at The Daily Journal in Vineland. Have a news tip? Reach out at (856) 563-5252 or jsmith@thedailyjournal.com or follow me on Twitter, @jpsmith-dj. Help support local journalism with a subscription to The Daily Journal.