By Ivan Pereira
A Jamaica man who stabbed his wife more than 250 times pleaded guilty Friday to killing his spouse inside their apartment while their daughter slept in another room, the Queens district attorney said.
Queens Supreme Court Justice Richard L. Buchter indicated he would issue Mohammad Solaiman an indeterminate term of 15 years to life in prison for first-degree murder, tampering with physical evidence, endangering the welfare of a child and criminal possession of a weapon, Queens DA Richard Brown said.
Brown concurred with the judge’s decision, citing the violent nature of the Dec. 22, 2007, incident.
“This brutal crime not only took the life of a young woman, it left a small child without a mother. The helpless victim died violently. The defendant should be kept behind bars for the rest of his life,” he said in a statement.
Between 2 a.m. and 4:30 a.m., Solaiman, 51, who worked as a bus boy at a diner, stabbed his wife Shahida Sultanna, 32, several times all over her body inside their Cedarcroft Road residence, the DA said. He then knocked on several neighbor’s doors and asked them to call the police, according to Brown.
When officers arrived, they found Solaiman and his 4-year-old daughter standing in the apartment, with blood on the door and Sultanna’s dead body lying on the bedroom floor, Brown said.
An autopsy report found that the mother was stabbed 251 times and was strangled, according to the DA.
Buchter scheduled the sentencing hearing for April 8, Brown said.
Reach reporter Ivan Pereira by e-mail at ipereira@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4546.
