Queens mom who confessed killing daughter, 5, ‘asphyxiated’ her in locked room: DA

An emotionally disturbed Queens woman who confessed to killing her 5-year-old daughter took the little girl into a locked room and asphyxiated her, prosecutors said at the woman’s arraignment Friday.

Little Fabiano Cabello had been in good health, playing at home for several hours Wednesday afternoon before her mother, Francis Cabello, brought her to a second-floor bedroom, closed the door and locked it, Queens Assistant District Attorney Lindsey Ruzza said.

Forty-five minutes later, the mom emerged from the room and called 911, chillingly telling a dispatcher, “I killed my daughter,” police and prosecutors said.

NYPD detectives charged Cabello, 32, late Thursday, a day after officers who rushed to the family’s Richmond Hill home found the little girl unconscious, lying face-up on a mattress, covered in vomit and bleeding from her mouth and nose.

Officers performed CPR on the child, but “given the severity” of the situation, they “didn’t even wait for an ambulance” and drove the victim to the hospital themselves, Ruzza said.

Fabiana Cabello died at Jamaica Hospital.

Ruzza said Fabiana sustained injuries consistent with asphyxiation, including scrapes to her face, spots on her eyes, heart and lungs from broken capillaries, called petechiae, swelling of her brain, and bruising and intermuscular hemorrhages on her shoulder blades and lower back.

Asphyxiation is an umbrella term covering death from oxygen deprivation, including strangulation, suffocation and smothering.

Police sources said Cabello has a history of mental health problems recorded by the NYPD, who have responded to the home at least once.

Cabello appeared in a white jumpsuit and handcuffs at her arraignment Friday in Queens for murder, where a judge ordered her held without bail. Asked by the judge to enter a plea, Cabello did not respond.

Her father waved at her from the courtroom’s gallery, but Cabello appeared not to notice.

“She might be facing a long time,” her father, Franklin Cabello, said outside court. “My family is crushed.”

Earlier this year, police were called to the family’s home and Cabello was taken to a hospital for observation, a police source with knowledge of the case said. Cabello was not violent during that prior incident, which did not involve the daughter, the source said.

“With more medication my daughter will get better,” Cabello’s father said as he fought back tears. “I’m hoping the judge takes into consideration her mental health.”

He said his daughter took good care of his granddaughter, saying, “My daughter, she loved her 100%. I can’t believe this.”

Asked if he forgives his daughter, he said, “Yes, I forgive her. I think right now she regrets what she did. She is hurting.”

Family members said Cabello spent several months in Jamaica Hospital’s psychiatric unit earlier this year, prompting her father to keep an eye on her, he told Spectrum News NY1.

Cabello told her father that her doctor said she could stop taking her medications, but the dad didn’t believe her and felt she was acting strange, the outlet reported.

“We think that (she) had mental problems,” the father said. “She takes medication, and she left the medication.”

Of his granddaughter, Fabiana, he said, “She was very intelligent, very important to the family.”

It was not immediately clear if Cabello’s months-long hospitalization was connected to the NYPD’s visit to her home.

Police took Cabello into custody Wednesday night after she called 911 to report her daughter’s injuries, at which point she was taken to Jamaica Hospital for a psychiatric observation.

It wasn’t immediately disclosed how little Fabiana died. A representative from the city’s medical examiner’s office said her cause of death was still being investigated Friday.

“It’s painful,” Fabiana’s great uncle, Punraj Singh, said at the family’s multigenerational home on Friday.

He last saw Fabiana, who the family called “Fabi,” the day before she was killed. “She’s very loving. Very caring,” he said. “She loves to speak a lot. I always have some chocolate or something (for her).”

Fabiana was especially attached to her great-grandmother, Singh said. “She would hold onto my mother — who is her great-grandmother — hold her hands,” Singh said.

“Sometimes she would notice my mom doesn’t have her spectacles on,” he added. “She would get them for her. Such an observant person.”

”It’s heartbreaking,” he said.

Singh acknowledged his great-niece Cabello spent time over the past year hospitalized for psychiatric issues, though said he never saw her be violent with her daughter.

Outside the home on 110th St. Thursday, the mother’s ex-boyfriend and Fabiana’s father, Kuldeep Singh, told the Daily News his ex was a loving mom he never would have suspected to be involved in the girl’s death.

“I never see anything in her actions to cause concern,” Singh said. “She cared for her so much. When I took my daughter, she called me many times to check on her, like, ‘Everything OK? Any problems?’”

Singh, 36, an Uber driver, did not live with his daughter but spoke with her nightly on the phone. When he last saw her two weeks ago, she seemed happy and normal, he said.

“She was happy with me,” he said. “She kiss me 100 times.”

He shared a voice message Fabiana sent him, saying, “Hi Papa, how are you?”

Neighbor Luis Salomon Perez, 60, said his grandchildren often played with Fabiana. Speaking in Spanish, he described her as “a good girl, very decent, kind and cheerful.”

About six months ago, Perez said he noticed a change in her mother.

“She used to come around to take her daughter to school — and then, from one moment to another, she stopped coming out,” he said.

“She was a good mother, but she was suffering from depression. I even spoke to her sister about it, how she was acting depressed, hardly ever leaving the house, not even taking the child to school or out to play anymore.”

Because such matters are confidential under state law, it was unclear if the city’s Administration for Children’s Services had any prior contact with the family.

“Our top priority is the safety and well-being of New York City children,” an ACS spokesperson said. “We are investigating this tragedy with the NYPD.”