The caregiver, prosecutors said, whipped the boy with an electric cord, seared his legs with an oven rack, fed him little, and forced him outside in his underwear as New York's temperature dropped near zero.
On Tuesday night, the boy, Myls Dobson, was given a loving farewell at a church in Harlem.
At a funeral at First Corinthians Baptist Church, men and woman wheezed and wailed as a closed white coffin was carried to the front of the room.
"Why would they do this to my nephew?" one woman yelled.
In the hours before the coffin arrived - its entrance delayed three hours by the snow - mourners waited inside the elegant church, with its cream-colored columns featuring cherubs.
About 300 people were there. Some said they knew him. Others came simply because they saw their own children - or brothers or sisters - in the eyes of the deceased child.
"This one hit home," said Denine Johnson, 49, a mother and New Jersey resident who battled the snow to attend the funeral of a boy she did not know. "That face."
The boy's death on Jan. 8 prompted the arrest of the caretaker, an investigation into the death and a promise by Mayor Bill de Blasio to put into effect a host of reforms meant to prevent child abuse.
By age 4, Myls had known both love and neglect.
In September 2011, his mother, Ashlee Dobson, lost custody of him after the city accused her of neglect. According to court records, Dobson suffered blackouts, had a personality disorder and was mentally disabled.
In August 2012, custody was given to his father, Okee Wade, 37, although Wade had been in and out of prison for a decade. A judge called on city social workers to monitor Wade's care of his son for a year, telling the social workers to "consult with his parole officer."
But there was no communication between the social workers and the parole officer, officials said. Wade was incarcerated again from September 2012 to February 2013. Social workers did not know that, although they had visited his home nine times.
Then, in December 2013, Wade left Myls in the care of Kryzie King, 28, a woman he had dated. Days later, he was arrested, charged with fraud and jailed. Myls stayed with King.
On Jan. 8, King called the authorities and told them that a child in her care had died. She initially told detectives that her charge had fallen from a perch on a bathtub ledge.
She later changed her story, saying she had tortured Myls for weeks before his death, Manhattan prosecutor Nicole Blumberg said in court this month. King was arrested and charged with assault and reckless endangerment, with additional charges possible.
The case highlighted the city's limited ability to protect children when their parents are incarcerated. Soon after Myls' death, de Blasio ordered an investigation into the matter.
A week later, the mayor announced a series of reforms aimed at improving communication between the Administration for Children's Services and the criminal justice system.
Among other reforms, de Blasio's plan calls for a change to state law that would give social workers access to arrest records. His plan would also require Family Court judges to hold hearings at the end of supervision periods, to ensure that children were being well taken care of.
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