Mom jailed while awaiting new trial in tot's death

The former Queens woman whose conviction in the 1990 slaying of her 4-year-old daughter was thrown out last month was ordered held in jail without bail Friday.

Khairual Abdul, 46, who is awaiting a new trial ordered by a state appeals court, did not speak during a brief bail hearing before State Supreme Court Justice C. Randall Hinrichs in Suffolk County Court.

The judge cited Abdul's "extensive prior criminal history" as he denied her bail. She is due back in court Sept. 24.

In 2007, Abdul was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of her daughter, Jennifer Shafiq. She had been serving a sentence of 25 years to life in prison before her conviction was overturned.

Assistant District Attorney Dari Schwartz said in court Friday Abdul had used numerous aliases and had been convicted of attempted grand larceny, criminal personation and other charges before and after Jennifer's death in December 1990.

Prosecutors at Abdul's trial said she caused her daughter's death by pushing the girl to the floor of their basement apartment in Queens. The child's body was buried by her father, Parmjit Singh, in a shallow grave off a service road of the Long Island Expressway in Manorville, prosecutors said.

Jennifer's remains were found by a passerby in 1996.

A state appeals court last month ordered a new trial for Abdul after finding Hinrichs, during jury deliberations at Abdul's trial, gave an insufficient answer to a question posed by the panel.

Hinrichs' reply may have led jurors to mistakenly believe they could convict Abdul based in part on things she did after Jennifer died, the appeals court said in its decision.

Prosecutors had argued at trial that Abdul showed she knew she was guilty of murder when she failed to call police after her daughter died.

The District Attorney's office plans to appeal the appellate court decision to the state Court of Appeals, Schwartz said in court.

Schwartz said the appellate judges said in their decision there had been "legally sufficient evidence" to convict Abdul.

Abdul's attorney, Mary Elizabeth Abbate of Deer Park, disagreed, saying prosecutors' chances of convicting Abdul again were "extremely slim."

Abbate said the jurors' note to Hinrichs, in which they asked whether Abdul's failure to call police was grounds for conviction, indicated they were not convinced Abdul had caused Jennifer's death. She said jurors mistakenly convicted Abdul because she had failed to call police.

Singh, 54, pleaded guilty in January 2008 to second-degree manslaughter and hindering prosecution for his role in Jennifer's death. He is expected to be released from prison in November and deported to his native India.