112901 PARENTS PLEAD NOT GUILTY IN KID SLAY
By IKIMULISA SOCKWELL-MASON
FACING THE MUSIC:
Matthew Herrnkind arrives at court on Staten Island
yesterday to answer charges in the heart-wrenching
murder of his 3-year-old daughter.
- Jim Alcorn
November 29, 2001 -- Facing life in prison, the Staten Island
couple accused of brutally killing their 3-year-old daughter
because she soiled her pants pleaded not guilty to murder
yesterday.
Julie Herrnkind - who is eight months pregnant with her sixth
child - was trembling before Acting Justice Leonard Rienzi and
answered questions in a little girl's voice.
Her husband, Matthew Poppe Herrnkind, 27, stood stone-faced
throughout the proceedings.
The night little Sylena died, the couple allegedly confessed
horrifying details of how they tortured and then killed the
girl.
Police say the pair told how they scrubbed the girls' bottom
with a scouring pad, squirted alcohol and peroxide on her
bruised backside and forced soap into her mouth.
Julie Herrnkind, 25, described how she and her husband
repeatedly slapped the girl, choked and held her head under a
running faucet, cops said.
Both husband and wife have been charged with one count of
second-degree murder, one count of first-degree manslaughter,
two counts of assault and one count of endangering the welfare
of a child.
If convicted, the couple could face life in prison.
Lawyers for the couple said they have to review autopsy
reports, medical data and other material before coming to any
conclusion on exactly how the child died.
Mark Fonte, the lawyer retained by Matthew Herrnkind's father
- a retired NYPD detective - said his client is "very upset"
by the way he's been characterized.
"He's horrified by the way he's being portrayed," Fonte said.
"He cares deeply for the children."
Julie Herrnkind's court-appointed lawyer said his client is
terribly distraught.
"As any parent would be, she's staggered by grief over the
loss of a child.