A grand jury has indicted an Elmhurst mother with murder after she strangled her 15-month-old daughter to death in her apartment.
“This is truly a very sad case in which a fifteen-month-old baby lost her life allegedly at the hands of her own mother – the woman who was supposed to nurture and care for her,” Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said on Wednesday, Jan. 11. “If the allegations prove true, the defendant will have to live the rest of her life knowing that her actions and hers alone were responsible for the death of her child.”
According to court records, on Tuesday, Jan. 3, at 6 p.m. officers from the 110th Precinct responded to a 911 call from Shangbo Xiangshengjie, the victim’s mother, saying that she murdered her 15-month-old daughter, Sanggye Lhakyi, inside of their third-floor apartment at 87-19 Elmhurst Ave. Upon their arrival, they found Lhakyi lying unconscious and unresponsive in a bed at the location. EMS responded to the location and pronounced Lhakyi dead at the scene.
Xiangshengjie was arrested at the scene. She allegedly admitted to the police that at approximately 1 p.m., she strangled the child with a piece of cloth and a phone charged until she was unresponsive. She did not provide aid to the victim or call for help until the 911 call that she made 5 hours later.
Xiangshengjie has been hospitalized since Jan. 3 and faces additional indictments charging her with one count of second-degree murder and two counts of fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon. If convicted, she faces up to 25 years in prison.
Lhakyi’s death has been ruled as a homicide. Preliminary autopsy findings by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner found that the victim had widespread hemorrhages of the eyes and face, all of which is consistent with homicide by strangulation.
