New York Daily News

I didn’t cut kids

She pleads not guilty to slashing 3 infants

- BY MOLLY CRANE-NEWMAN, MICHAEL GARTLAND

The distraught day care worker who took a knife and meat cleaver to three newborn babies pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault charges at a Friday court appearance.

Yu Fen Wang, who told the Daily News in a jailhouse interview weeks ago that she thought her victims were wolves, not children, appeared troubled at her Queens Supreme Court arraignmen­t hearing.

“She has a severe mental health disorder — this is according to Rikers,” Wang’s attorney Jean Wang said. “Every time I see her, there is a new injury.”

The lawyer described slits on her client’s wrists, bruises on her forehead and cuts on her tongue and said she’s been on suicide watch the entire time she’s been locked up.

She also said Wang is still in a “highly traumatic state” and requested the judge set bail at $10,000 for her client, who was remanded after her September arrest.

The 52-year-old grandmothe­r of three was working at an unlicensed Queens nursery in September when she allegedly slashed and stabbed three infants — a 13-day-old, a 33-day-old who was wounded in the abdomen and back, and a 22-day old who sustained cuts to her ear, chest and face.

Wang also attacked a 63year-old father of one of the babies and a 31-year-old dad who stepped in to protect the tots, officials said.

Aside from four counts of attempted murder, Wang is facing four counts of first-degree assault, single counts of second-degree assault and criminal weapon possession charges. The combined charges could carry anywhere from five to 25 years in prison if she’s convicted.

In a bizarre exclusive jailhouse interview with The News in September, Wang apologized for the bloody rampage at the three-story Mei Xin Care home in Flushing.

“I don’t know why I did such a thing or what I was thinking about,” she said at the time in her native Mandarin. “At the moment, I thought they were not babies, but wolves.”

Assistant District Attorney Matthew Sweet said Friday that on Sept. 21 at New YorkPresby­terian Hospital, Wang was overheard by a detective telling a psychiatri­st: “I thought I saw wolves, and I tried to kill, kill, kill.”

Wang’s attorney said her client is unable to receive the care she needs on Rikers Island and should be transferre­d to an outpatient facility, “so she doesn’t die in jail, and worsen in her mental health disability.”

“She needs mental health treatment,” she said.

Judge Richard Buchter said it would be “inappropri­ate” to release Wang to a facility that is not secure.

Wang is due back in court Jan 30.

 ??  ?? Yu Fen Wang has a blank stare as she appears in Queens court Friday to plead not guilty to slashing three infants in September.
Yu Fen Wang has a blank stare as she appears in Queens court Friday to plead not guilty to slashing three infants in September.
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 ?? DANNY IUDICI ?? Police investigat­e scene in Queens in September.
DANNY IUDICI Police investigat­e scene in Queens in September.

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