By Howard Koplowitz
A Queens Village mother is expected to be sentenced to 17 years in prison after she pleaded guilty last week to assault after she burned her then-6-year-old daughter in 2009 during a voodoo ritual that left the girl with life-threatening burns covering 25 percent of her body, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.
“During the performance of a voodoo ritual, the child’s mother intentionally poured an accelerant over her young daughter’s body and caused her to be engulfed in flames. Despite the child’s cries for help and the severity of her injuries, she failed to seek medical attention,” Brown said in a statement. “This is a tragic case in which the person a child should feel most safe with is the once who caused her so much pain. The lengthy sentence the defendant is expected to receive is a reflection of the seriousness of this matter.”
Marie Lauradin, 31, of 219th Street in Queens Village, pleaded guilty May 18 to one count of assault before Queens Supreme Court Justice Richard Buchter, who indicated he would sentence Lauradin to 17 years in prison when she is next expected to be in court June 6.
Lauradin’s daughter, Frantzcia Saintil, 6, was admitted to the William Randolph Hurst Burn Center at New York Presbyterian Hospital Feb. 6, 2009, with second- and third-degree burns covering 25 percent of her body, including her face, torso and legs, Brown said.
The girl had to be placed in a medically induced coma and hooked up to a respirator as part of her treatment, the DA said.
At the time of the incident, Lauradin told police that in the early afternoon of Feb. 4, 2009, she was in the kitchen preparing rice on the stove and that as she was transferring the pot from a front burner to a back one, Frantzcia approached her from behind and hit her hand, causing her to spill the pot of boiling water on the child, Brown said.
After Frantzcia was released from the hospital, the girl was placed in foster care and she eventually told her foster family a different account of what happened to her, the DA said.
She said she was home with her mother when Lauradin started a voodoo ritual where her mother poured and accelerant on her head and in a circle on the floor, Brown said.
Her mother then set the circle on fire and placed the girl, who was naked, inside the ring of fire when the accelerant on her body ignited and flames engulfed her, the DA said.
Although the girl’s grandmother, Sylvenie Thessier, was in the room during the ritual, she did not intervene, even though Frantzcia cried out for help, Brown said.
Thessier, 72, pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment earlier this year for neglecting to take the child to a hospital and was sentenced by Buchter last month to one to three years in prison.
Reach reporter Howard Koplowitz by e-mail at hkoplowitz@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4573.
