Prison time for mom in 4-year-old's death

When the long fight to get justice for little Jennifer Shafiq was finally over Wednesday in state Supreme Court in Riverhead, tears flowed in the hallway.

Pat Ventrelli, daughter-in-law of Lucille Ventrelli, the foster mother who raised Jennifer, cried as she hugged prosecutors and retired Det. Douglas Mercer, who built the homicide cases against Jennifer's biological parents, father Parmjit Singh, 55, and mother Khairual Abdul, 47.

Wednesday, Justice C. Randall Hinrichs sentenced Abdul to 41/3 to 13 years in prison, ending a long, sad case that began with Jennifer's killing in December 1990 at age 4.

Singh admitted dumping her body by the side of the Long Island Expressway in Manorville and is in prison after pleading guilty in January 2008.

Abdul, who for a time denied even having a daughter, was convicted of murder in January 2007, but the conviction was overturned in August, 2010. Last month she pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter as part of a plea deal.

Defense attorney Mary Elizabeth Abbate tried to prevent Ventrelli from speaking in court, arguing they were not Jennifer's family members. But Hinrichs, noting that Lucille Ventrellis, now more than 80 years old, raised the child for most of her life after abuse allegations against Singh and Abdul, allowed Ventrelli to speak.

"Jennifer was part of our family," she said. "We were there the first time she rolled over. We were there when she learned to sit and crawl."

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She said Jennifer endured months of abuse and torture from the one person who should have protected her.

Abbate disputed that, although testimony from the trial indicated Jennifer suffered burns, two broken arms and a broken leg before she finally was killed for urinating on herself. Abdul pushed her down to the ground, cracking her skull.

Abdul and Singh weren't arrested until 2005 in California after Singh implicated Abdul to police there after a domestic dispute.

Prosecutor Dari Schwartz said she and her colleagues "won't forget her smiling face and her bright, shining eyes."

"Words do not do justice to describe the magnitude of the tragic death Jennifer suffered, or to describe the magnitude of her difficult life," Hinrichs said.

Abdul declined to speak in court.

"People get sentenced to more time for abusing animals," Ventrelli said afterward. "She might not have had our blood, but she was family."