NY Daily News – July 07, 2016
by Ben Kochman
A mother whose two baby girls were killed in a Bronx blaze after she left them alone in an apartment with burning incense has been criminally charged.
Haya Konte, 26, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to two counts of criminally negligent homicide and endangering the welfare of a child for leaving her young daughters in an apartment where the smoke alarms were not working.
Konte was inside a laundromat across the street from the Butler Houses in Claremont on April 13 when the incense ignited the furniture, authorities said.
She told detectives she planned to return home with ice cream for the kids after checking on her clothes.
The smoke alarms were off — leaving no warning of the fire before smoke poured out of the third-floor windows, witnesses and an FDNY source said.
Firefighters arrived too late to save 2-year-old Amanda Jabie and her 18-month-old sister Jannubi. Witnesses said the visibly pregnant Konte collapsed on the sidewalk — shouting “My babies!” — as emergency responders carried the burned bodies out of the building.
Konte, who was born in France and lived in West Africa before moving to New York, wore a yellow headscarf and long black dress as she faced a judge in Bronx Supreme Court Tuesday afternoon. She had surrendered to police at the 42nd Precinct Tuesday morning.
After a brief hearing, Konte was released without bail on the condition she give up her passport.
It remains unclear why the apartment’s smoke alarms did not go off. A New York City Housing Authority maintenance worker found the devices were working earlier in the day. But Konte’s lawyer, Karen Smolar of the Bronx Defenders, said there is no evidence that Konte switched off the alarms. “This is a tragedy, and the community is doing everything they can to support her,” the lawyer added.
Konte faces four years in prison if convicted, but her lawyer said that prosecutors have offered her a non-jail sentence if she pleads guilty.
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