NYC man accused of killing baby had history of mental woes, his mom says

The Bronx man arrested for allegedly killing his 3-month-old daughter and dumping her body in a trash-strewn glade near Yankee stadium long suffered from severe mental disorders that surfaced through violent outbursts including killing animals as a child, according to his mother.

As a 10-year-old living with her in Houston, Tex., Damion Comager was spotted by property managers strangling a cat and then dumping its lifeless body on the ground, his mom Ashly Sanford told the Daily News on Tuesday.

“Damion picked up a cat and killed him with his bare hands,” she recounted. “They showed us where the body was and everything.”

Comager, who is accused in the horrific slaying of 3-month-old Genevieve Comager, has suffered from mental illnesses including bipolar disorder and schizophrenia since adolescence, Sanford said. He’d been taking medication to curb his anti-social behavior until he moved out of his father’s house in Louisiana at age 17, the mother added.

In another disturbing moment from Comager’s childhood, his mom said he uttered malicious threats to a nephew before jabbering unsettling remarks she described as “demonic.”

“Damion used to come to my house and threaten my grandson,” she said. “He used to tell him all kinds of demonic, devil stuff. I used to be scared.”

A day after Comager’s father had a disturbing phone call with him, the dad asked police Sunday to check on his granddaughter at the University Ave. transitional shelter where Comager was staying with Genevieve’s mother. Damion’s father said Comager had admitted to him that the girl died after Comager violently shook her. The victim’s mother, Ivana Paolozzi, was later charged with helping Comager hide the baby’s corpse.

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Sanford believes Genevieve had been dead for as long as two weeks before their son admitted to the killing.

She claimed that one day, the infant was suddenly absent from phone calls and Facetime chats, having been a constant present until then.

“It kills me that I missed the signs, because all of a sudden he stopped calling me,” Sanford said. “I stopped hearing the baby in the background, but he always said she was asleep. I thought he had it under control.”

Comager bristled under the stress of raising a daughter while homeless and out of work, demanding support from his parents in the form of clothes, formula and money — then raging at them for not being helpful — said Sanford.

“He flipped the table on us, saying we’re not supporting him. We sent baby clothes, milk, money — everything,” she said.

Sanford said it was actually during a phone call with her son on Saturday in which she insisted on sending some clothes for the baby that her son confessed she had died, prompting her to call Comager’s father.

“When I said, ‘I’m gonna go get the baby more clothes,’ he said, ‘No, mama, don’t get the baby more clothes,’” Sanford recounted. “He said, ‘The baby’s gone, the baby’s gone. You’re never going to see the baby again.’”