Brooklyn mom who drowned daughter, 2, for wetting herself breaks down during sentencing: 'I regret her death'
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: A Brooklyn mother, who was convicted of drowning her two-year-old daughter by holding her head underwater inside a storage bin as punishment for wetting herself, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Lin Li, 28, was found guilty of manslaughter in the 2016 drowning death of her daughter, Melody Zheng, before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Deborah Dowling on May 31 last year. She was also found guilty of first-degree attempted assault for allegedly holding her four-year-old son's head underwater a day before she fatally administered the same punishment to Melody.
During her trial, the court heard that, on March 13, 2016, at approximately 8.50 pm at the family's apartment on 47th Street in Sunset Park, Li took Melody into the bathroom to punish her for wetting herself.
Then, she allegedly placed her daughter inside a storage container in the tub, filled it with water, and then submerged the two-year-old's head under the water until she stopped struggling. She proceeded to walk out of the bathroom before later coming back to find her daughter unconscious and unresponsive.
When EMS arrived at the scene, they found Melody's father, who had been sleeping while his wife was punishing her, desperately attempting CPR. The child was rushed to Maimonides Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 9.20 pm.
The medical examiner subsequently determined that the two-year-old had multiple bruises and contusions that were "consistent with her being held underwater and drowned."
The court also heard that both children had been living with their grandparents in China just weeks before the two-year-old's death.
During this week's sentencing hearing, Li's defense lawyer Mario Romano brought up the 28-year-old's "tough upbringing" in her native China and her deplorable living conditions in Sunset Park, where their family lived in an apartment where they had to share a bathroom with a dozen other people.
Romano said Li was a "loving, caring" mother who "blames herself every day" for killing her daughter.
Li, speaking through a translator, couldn't hold back her tears and apologized for her actions, telling Dowling she would accept whatever punishment was handed down to her. "I would like to say being a mom, it is my duty to take care of my children, and I really regret my daughter's death," she said. "It was my mistake... losing my daughter is very, very painful to me. No matter how much time you're going to send me to jail... I will accept it."
Dowling eventually handed down separate sentences for each of the counts totaling 18 years and ordered them to run concurrently.
"This defendant had a duty to care for her children and to keep them safe, but instead she used inexplicable and dangerous methods to discipline them – and caused the violent death her daughter," said Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez in a statement. "Nothing can bring back little Melody, who had an entire life ahead of her. But, with today’s sentence, we have obtained a measure of justice in this terribly tragic case."