Press Release
QUEENS MOTHER CHARGED WITH FIRST DEGREE MURDER FOR KILLING INFANT TWINS; SIX-WEEK OLD BABIES FOUND DEAD IN APARTMENT
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced today that Danezja Kilpatrick, 23, has been charged with murder in the first degree, criminal possession of a weapon and other crimes for allegedly killing her son and daughter. The 46-day-old babies were found dead in the mother’s apartment in Woodside, Queens, Thursday afternoon.
District Attorney Katz said, “This is a tragic, heart-wrenching case. Two babies – boy and girl twins – are dead and their mother charged with doing the unthinkable. The babies were just six-weeks-old. This should have been a joyous time for this family, instead the babies’ relatives are mourning their deaths and the sad fact that the one person who should have been their protector and loving caregiver allegedly killed them.”
Kilpatrick, of 51st Street in the Woodside neighborhood of Queens, was arraigned this morning before Queens Criminal Court Judge Stephanie Zaro on a complaint charging her with two counts each of murder in the first and second degree, criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Judge Zaro set the defendant’s return date for May 21, 2021. If convicted, Kilpatrick faces up to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
According to the charges, police were responding to a wellness check at the home of the defendant. Inside Kilpatrick’s fifth-floor apartment, police first discovered the baby boy – named Dallis – in a bassinet. The baby was found with a knife protruding from his neck. His tiny body was lifeless.
Continuing, said the District Attorney, the police continued to search the home and ultimately found the baby girl – named Dakota – stuffed in a plastic garbage bag under the kitchen sink. This baby was also dead.
The investigation was conducted by Police Officer Oliver Kim of the 114th Precinct Detective Squad under the supervision of Sergeant Kensington Cunningham and Lieutenant Brian Hilmann and Detective Lizbeth Klein of the Queens North Homicide Squad under the supervision of Lieutenant Timothy Thompson along with other members of the NYPD.
Senior Assistant District Attorney Jonathan Selkowe with the assistance of Assistant District Attorney Adarna De Frietas, both of the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau, are prosecuting the case, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Peter J. McCormack III, Senior Deputy Bureau Chief, John W. Kosinski and Karen Ross, Deputy Bureau Chiefs, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A. Saunders.
**Criminal complaints and indictments are accusations. A defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.