Thursday, July 7, 2011

On the same day that Khalid Khan, a Kenyan immigrant, pleaded not guilty to charges he fatally slashed his estranged wife in her home, a family friend filed court papers seeking custody of the couple’s young daughter

Khan, 42, stood silent during the brief proceeding in Superior Court in Newark, where he was formally charged with murder and weapons offenses. Prosecutors say that he attacked his wife, Shazmina Khan, 31, in the bathroom of her apartment, cut her throat then locked the door and fled. Shazmina Khan sustained a very severe laceration to the neck, Essex County Assistant Prosecutor Romesh Sukhdeo said. The defendant, who surrendered to police soon after the killing, appeared in court with a shaved head. He remains in jail in lieu of $1.5 million bail. The couple — who are from Kenya — had been separated for two years, after the victim endured a history of domestic violence. Police found Shazmina’s body in the bathroom, after the couple's 8-year-old daughter alerted the landlord when she couldn’t find her mother. The little girl was placed in the state’s custody because relatives live abroad. Now, one of Shazmina’s close friends is seeking custody of the girl, whom she occasionally looked after. The woman, Yanick Loradin, is the aunt of Monica Paul, who was fatally shot in 2008 by her estranged boyfriend at a YMCA. Paul was also 31 at the time, and, like Shazmina Khan, had previously filed domestic abuse complaints against the gunman, with whom she shared two children. That man, Kenneth Duckett, was convicted at trial and sentenced to life in prison.

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