Jennifer Millman

Queens Mother Gets Up to Life in Prison for Strangling Stepdaughter in Bathtub

Shamdai Arjun, of Queens, will spend 22 years to up to life behind bars for the 2016 murder of Ashdeep Kaur

What to Know

  • A 58-year-old Queens woman has been sentenced to up to life in prison for strangling her 9-year-old stepdaughter in a bathtub in 2016
  • Shamdai Arjun, of Queens, will spend 22 years to up to life behind bars for the 2016 murder of Ashdeep Kaur
  • A neighbor discovered the horrifying scene after breaking down a bathroom door, finding the girl in the bathtub

A 58-year-old Queens woman has been sentenced to up to life in prison for strangling her 9-year-old stepdaughter in a bathtub in 2016, a crime a neighbor was horrified to discover after breaking down the locked bathroom door.

Prosecutors say Shamdai Arjun, of Queens, was sentenced on Monday after being convicted of murder in the August 2016 death of Ashdeep Kaur.

She will spend 22 years to up to life behind bars for the slaying.

A jury convicted Arjun in less than an hour back in May for the murder of Ashdeep, who lived with Arjun at her Richmond Hill home, according to the Queens DA.

During the trial, prosecutors say an eyewitness observed Arjun and her ex-husband leaving the Queens home on the evening of Aug. 19, 2016, with two grandchildren. The eyewitness asked about the stepdaughter and was told she was in the bathroom waiting for her father to pick her up.

Prosecutors say the eyewitness called the victim's father who told her to break down the bathroom door. She did and found the girl strangled in the bathtub.

The medical examiner ruled the girl died of manual strangulation. Arjun's ex-husband was charged with obstructing police shortly after she was arrested, though the status of his case wasn't immediately clear Monday. 

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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