Couple held in death of their baby

A Flushing couple remains under lock-and-key after fatally injuring their baby, then calling their parents in China for advice before calling 9-1-1, according to Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown.
Hang Bin Li, 23, is being held without bail on Riker’s Island charged with murder and other offenses. His wife Ying Li, 22, is charged with manslaughter. She was also denied bail and being held at the Elmhurst Hospital Psychiatric Ward. Both are reportedly under a suicide watch.
According to Brown, the couple, both of 43-18 Union Street in Flushing, called a “close friend” in the late afternoon Monday, October 22, 2007, telling him that their 10-week-old daughter, Annie, “was sick” and asked him to take her “for a check up.”
Brown alleges that when the friend, Li Dong Yong arrived at the apartment around 8 p.m., the infant was “sweating and not moving her arms and legs.” Further, Yong allegedly said that the baby didn’t cry, but made “distressed gurgle sounds.”
Nevertheless, Brown alleges, the pair waited until about 1 a.m. the next morning before calling 9-1-1. In the interim, they “called China and discussed the condition of the (victim) with their parents,” the DA alleged.
According to the criminal complaint, Dr. Fernanda Kupferman, a pediatrician and child abuse specialist at Flushing Hospital Medical Center, said that the infant was admitted at about 1 a.m. on Tuesday, October 23 without heartbeat or pulse, but was revived and placed on life support.
According to a detective from the 109th Precinct in Flushing, the pair initially claimed that the baby was “in good health” and became ill suddenly, shortly before they called 9-1-1.
It is also alleged that the father later claimed that just before 9-1-1 was called, “he accidentally bumped (the victim’s) head on the night stand.”
Kupferman allegedly found that the child had “a large skull fracture,” bleeding on the brain, bruised eyes and “little or no brain activity.”
The infant was declared “brain dead” on Thursday, October 26. Two days later, life support was withdrawn, and the child died.
According to Brown, an autopsy revealed that the infant had suffered two blows to the head severe enough to cause hemorrhages, had both legs broken and signs of a healing rib fracture.
According to a Deputy Medical Examiner, the injuries were “inconsistent with” the claims by parents, and consistent with “shaken baby syndrome.” The cause of death was declared “homicide by shaking and blunt force trauma to the head.”
Brown alleges that had the couple not delayed calling for medical assistance, the baby might have survived the fractured skull and other injuries.
If convicted, Hang Bin Li faces 25 years to life and Ying Li faces 15 years in prison. They are due back in court on March 26.