Press Release

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced today that Dahe Lin, 77, has been sentenced to 21 years in prison for manslaughter in the fatal stabbing of his daughter-in-law in broad daylight just outside their home in Ridgewood, Queens, in March 2019.

District Attorney Katz said, “This defendant viciously attacked the wife of his son and murdered her on a public street in plain view of witnesses. This was an unimaginably horrific crime. The defendant has admitted his guilt and will be punished for taking the life of his daughter-in-law.

Lin, of Suydam Street, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the first degree last month before Queens Supreme Court Justice Richard L. Buchter. Today Queens Supreme Court Justice Ushir Pandit-Durant sentenced the defendant to 21 years in prison to be followed by five years’ post release supervision.

DA Katz said on March 28, 2019, around 8:30 a.m. the defendant was seen choking Wen Ying He outside of the home they shared in Ridgewood. A witness intervened and pulled the man off the 50-year-old woman. But then, Lin ran inside the house and returned with a kitchen knife. He grabbed his daughter-in-law again and repeatedly plunged the blade into her neck.

Continuing, according to Court records, another individual who saw the bloodshed flagged down a passing police patrol car. The defendant was arrested and the victim was taken to an area hospital. The deep gash wounds from the knife were extensive and the woman died several days.

Senior Assistant District Attorney Franchesca Basso of the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau is prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Brad A. Leventhal, Bureau Chief, Peter J. McCormack III, Senior Deputy Bureau Chief, John W. Kosinski and Kenneth M. Appelbaum, Deputy Bureau Chiefs, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A. Saunders.