Maritza Yauger: Bronx woman found fit to stand trial after stabbing 7-year-old granddaughter
BRONX, NEW YORK CITY: A 65-year-old Bronx grandmother who was charged with attempted murder and attempted manslaughter following the alleged stabbing of her seven-year-old granddaughter in her Morrisania apartment was found fit to stand trial on Monday, April 10. Maritza Yauger is accused of carrying out the dreadful attack on February 21 which left the child in critical condition at Lincoln Hospital.
After Yauger was arrested, she was ordered to undergo a thorough psychiatric exam. Her lawyers have filed notice in Bronx Supreme Court that they will still pursue a psychiatric defense. Yauger is currently facing charges of assault, criminal possession of a weapon, reckless endangerment, and endangering the welfare of a child.
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What is psychiatric defense?
Psychiatric defense, also known as the mental disorder defense, is an affirmative defense by excuse in a criminal case, arguing that the defendant is not responsible for their actions due to a psychiatric disease at the time of the criminal act. This is contrasted with an excuse of provocation, in which the defendant is responsible, but the responsibility is lessened due to a temporary mental state.
Yauger stabbed her granddaughter more than 12 times
The grandmother reportedly stabbed her grandchild more than a dozen times leaving her with deep cuts to her trachea and left chest. Police claimed that the child is expected to fully recover from her injuries and will be able to survive. Yauger's son found his niece, who was visiting her grandmother at the time of the attack and stays with her parents in New Jersey, bleeding on a bed, reported News 12 The Bronx.
Police added the girl's four-year-old sister was also present at the scene but was not harmed. The knife the suspect allegedly used to stab her granddaughter was recovered.
Yauger's arrest shocked friends and neighbors
Neighbors and friends were shocked with locals recalling the grandmother pampering her granddaughter at a neighborhood hair salon and showering her with sweets and treats. “She worshipped her granddaughter,” Maria Castillo, a hairdresser at the salon told New York Post. “When she brings the granddaughter I said, ‘Why you give her everything?’ She said, ‘I have two sons. I have no daughter. I love my granddaughter,” Castillo said. “I give her everything.”
The authorities claimed that the grandmother suddenly attack the child around 8 am and stabbed her in the stomach, neck and back.
