A Queens mom is held without bail on murder charges after her 5-year-old died with heart and brain injuries, as the girl's grandfather says he forgives her.
Francis Cabello, 32, was arraigned Friday in Queens Criminal Court on a second-degree murder charge and ordered held without bail after her daughter, Fabiana Cabello, was found unresponsive in the family’s South Richmond Hill home and later pronounced dead at Jamaica Hospital.
Prosecutors told the court the child’s autopsy showed scrapes to her face, petechiae in her eyes, heart, and lungs, a swollen brain, bruises on her extremities, and intramuscular hemorrhaging on her shoulder blade and lower back, findings they said were consistent with asphyxiation.
First responders discovered the little girl just before 7 p.m. Wednesday. She was face down on the floor with blood coming from her nose. Police began CPR, then put her in a patrol car and rushed her to the hospital.
Assistant District Attorney Lindsey Ruzza described why officers did not wait.
"But given the severity of her condition, they didn’t even wait for an ambulance,"
Fabiana was pronounced dead at Jamaica Hospital. Court records and prosecutors said the mother and child were the only two people in the room.
Hours earlier, the 5-year-old had been in good health and running around the home, according to the case account presented in court. Then Francis Cabello took her daughter to a second-floor bedroom and locked the door.
About 45 minutes later, the mother came out alone and dialed 911. She told the operator, “I killed my daughter.”
Ruzza told the court the mother later made several statements to police “in reference to not only killing the child but wanting to have killed her child.”
Cases in which a parent is accused of killing young children force the justice system to confront hard questions about proof, motive, and accountability, as seen when a Clancy defense claims no proof in another high-profile child-death prosecution.
Neighbor Carlos watched the arrest and said the mother showed no emotion.
"She was not crying, it was like nothing happened,"
He added that the weight of the scene hit hard.
"It’s too much emotions together. I feel sad for the child."
Dr. Lin of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner performed the autopsy. Prosecutors and court documents described the injuries as consistent with asphyxiation, damage reaching the heart, eyes, lungs, and brain, plus bruising and internal bleeding in the back and shoulder.
Those details landed in open court Friday as Francis Cabello stood charged with second-degree murder and was held without bail. No other charges or prior history were detailed in the court presentation reported from the hearing.
Testimony about a child’s autopsy can become a defining moment in a murder case, much as it did when Lindsay Clancy broke down during her daughter’s autopsy testimony in a separate trial.
Across the street, licensed practical nurse Erika Santiago, 43, said she heard heavy yelling Wednesday night. She works at the hospital where Fabiana was taken and learned of the death the next morning.
"I heard about this when I woke up this morning at 6 o’clock and it’s absolutely devastating, devastating,"
Santiago, who has two daughters of her own, ages 10 and 12, said the closeness made it worse.
"And it’s right across the street and they brought her to the hospital I work at. It’s so close to home."
Outside Queens Criminal Court, grandfather Franklin Cabello spoke in Spanish and described a family left shattered.
"As a family, we feel mentally and physically destroyed. We can’t think [clearly] but we put our confidence in God."
He said his daughter had been respectful and quiet, treated him like a father, and loved Fabiana. He also claimed she was not in her right mind.
"She was very respectful, quiet, and she always treated me like a father, she treated me with respect... She loved her daughter... She wasn’t in control. She didn’t make this decision in her right mind. She was under some kind of influence"
Then he offered the line that framed the family’s public stance.
"I forgive my daughter,"
Prosecutors did not present a motive in court. The grandfather’s claim of “some kind of influence” was not explained further in the material from the hearing, and no medical or toxicology finding on that point was described.
Family members sometimes describe a mother as unstable or desperate before a child’s death, a theme that also surfaced when Lindsay Clancy’s former mother-in-law told a jury the young mother had been begging for help.
What the court record does show is simpler and colder: a locked bedroom, a 45-minute wait, a 911 confession, a child found face down with blood at her nose, a rush to the hospital without waiting for an ambulance, and an autopsy that prosecutors say matches asphyxiation.
Public reaction to child-killing cases often turns quickly to whether the system will deliver a clear verdict and real consequences, as when leaders responded after a Clancy mistrial drew demands for justice for three dead children.
In Queens, the charge is second-degree murder. The defendant is held without bail. The victim was 5 years old and, by the account given in court, had been healthy and active in her own home only hours before she died.
A locked door, a 911 confession, and a child’s ruined heart and brain leave no room for soft excuses, only a demand that the law protect the smallest victims and punish those who take their lives.