JAMES FARRIOR - 11 mo - Queens NY

Krystal Khan accused of chugging Nyquil prior to drowning death of baby at daycare center

Tuesday, February 1st 2011, 3:30 PM


Krystal Khan was out cold when 11-month-old James Farrior tumbled head first into the death bucket.

James Farrior was 11 months old when he died.

Bad Medicine

A Queens babysitter wrecklessly chugged Nyquil when she ran out of Dayquil in the hours before the 11-month-old boy she was watching drowned in a bucket of water, a prosecutor charged Tuesday.

"She ran out of Dayquil and used Nyquil knowing from previously using it that she would get drowsy," Assistant Queens District Attorney Leigh Bishop told jurors as the trial of Krystal Khan got underway.

Khan, who wiped tears away at the defense table as Bishop spoke, was out cold when 11-month-old James Farrior tumbled head first into the death bucket, where a yellow rubber ducky was also found.

The 29-year-old woman faces up to four years in prison on a reckless assault charge for the June 15, 2009 tragedy. Khan's lawyer, Eugene Guarino, told jurors his client shouldn't be punished for an accident.

"This was a tragic, tragic accident which never should have occurred but it has," Guarino told jurors. "The events of June 15, 2009 were an accident. They were not criminal."

Khan advertised on craigslist and charged parents $25 a day to care for kids.

"I charge so little because the competition is so high," Khan wrote in a statement given to cops.

Bishop said Khan left the child unattended for an hour while she slept and showed little emotion when cops arrived to find the child lying beside the bucket, breathless and unresponsive.

"She was calmly and without emotion telling police what had happened," Bishop told jurors.

One of the first cops on the scene said Khan coolly answered questions and didn't appear concerned that the baby had died.

"She was very calm," Det. Brian Simonsen told jurors. "She didn't seem to be upset."

Queens jury hears baby-sitter Kristal Kahn's horror tale of tot's drowning in bucket of water

BY Thomas Zambito
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Friday, February 4th 2011, 4:00 AM

Anderson/News
Kristal Khan took NyQuil and fell asleep, during which time the young boy she was babysitting drowned in a bucket of water.


Baby-sitter
Kristal Khan was awakened from a NyQuil-induced sleep by her young son
telling her the 11-month-old boy she was supposed to be watching had
toppled into a bucket of water.
"Mommy, James is in the water," the
4-year-old boy told Khan, according to the baby-sitter's videotaped
statement given to prosecutors in the hours after James Farrior drowned
on June 15, 2009.
Khan went to the kitchen of the Richmond Hill home that doubled as a daycare center and found the baby upside down.
"I
saw James half in and half out of the bucket," Khan said on the video
played for Queens jurors Thursday. "I picked him up and tried to rub his
back."

Later on the same videotape, she used a plastic baby doll to
show prosecutors how the boy was bent at the waist leaning into the
bucket.
Khan, 29, faces four years in prison on the reckless assault charge.
Assistant
District Attorney Leigh Bishop suggested the youngster may have drowned
chasing after a yellow rubber ducky that was found in the bottom of the
bucket.

The 8-gallon bucket held 6 inches of water.

Khan claimed she filled it the night before so she could mop up food coloring her daughter had spilled on the kitchen floor.

Kristal Khan Charged For Infant Drowning Under Her Care

By Erline Aguiluz on February 11, 2011 9:09 AM

Queens babysitter Kristal
Khan, 29, was charged with reckless assault after allegedly falling
asleep from taking NyQuil while 11-month-old James Farrior drowned. Khan
claimed she forgot to pour out the water from the mop bucket the night
before the incident when the infant fell upside down into the pail to
get a hold of a yellow rubber duck.

Khan took the sleep-inducing medicine while looking after Farrior and her own children in June 2009, according to the New York Daily News. The 11-month-old was later found dead after drowning in six inches of water, and the event led the babysitter to appear before the Queens Supreme Court.

"Was this the best that the
defendant could have done?" asked Assistant District Attorney Leigh
Bishop to the jurors. "What was she thinking? That it would be a good
idea to take NyQuil before taking responsibility for three young
children?"

Khan's NY criminal defense attorney Eugene Guarino argued that his
client was "not a monster." Guarino noted that Chrisann Josiah,
Farrior's mother, had left the infant under Khan's care for nearly 8
months and never complained. He also pointed out that Josiah was only
paying his client $25 per day, which is a "very small amount of money"
for someone who "faithfully did her job" and "worked hard" as a
babysitter.

"The events of June, 15, 2009 were a tragedy ... It was not a crime,"
contended Guarino. Even so, Kristal Khan could face four years behind
bars if convicted of reckless assault.

Nyquil-addled babysitter who let tot drown in bucket gets 1 to 3 years in prison

March 28, 2011

Too little, too late.

As a judge sentenced her to 1-to-3 years in prison, a Queens babysitter who allowed an 11-month-old baby to drown in a bucket while she was zonked out on cold medicine finally apologized to the tragic tot’s family.

"I’m sorry for what I’ve done to this family," Kristal Khan said today as she read from a three-page-handwritten statement.

Khan, 30, of Richmond Hill, was found guilty of the reckless assault and endangerment of James Farrior III who fell face first into a blue bucket of water and drowned as the babysitter was asleep on the couch after taking Nyquil.


Krystal Khan in 2009.

"I did demonstrate poor judgment for taking Nyquil," Khan said. "I’m a single parent and I’ve lost my children as well. I loved James as did my children. I did take care of him to the best of my ability —my brother and I child proofed the house." "All I could do is offer my sincerest apologies to the family and hope they will one day forgive me."

It was little consolation to James’ heartbroken mother Chrisann Josiah.

"I’ve reached out to her on Facebook and she’s ignored me. I saw her life going on everyday as if nothing happened," said Josiah, as she read her victim impact statement. "Kristal Khan didn’t love our child. She made our child seem so insignificant and because of her, instead of planning his first birthday on June 15, 2009 we were planning his funeral."

"She just didn’t care," prosecutor Leigh Bishop said. "Who knows what [James] could have offered the world? Her actions cry out for the max."

Queens Supreme Court Justice Richard Buchter was unmoved by Khan’s half-hearted apology. "The defendant said that she has lost her children. It doesn’t measure up since her children will be waiting for her when she gets out," said Buchter.

In addition to her prison time, Khan was also referred for psychiatric treatment and she faces deportation back to her native Trinidad upon completion of her sentence.