A woman who lost five family members, including four who were just children, when another relative hacked them to death with a meat cleaver in Brooklyn begged the killer on Tuesday to explain why he committed the grisly crime.
Hong Jin Zhuo speaks during Mingdong Chen’s hearing on Oct. 20.Stefan Jeremiah“I don’t know why,” Hongjin Zhuo sobbed in Chinese to Mingdong Chen in Brooklyn Supreme Court.
“For what reason he killed my brother’s entire family? We want to hear why you did what you did. I know you pleaded guilty but we’ve had no affirmation for two years.”
But her questions went unanswered as Chen, 27, declined to address the court just before being sentenced to 125 years to life in prison for the October 2013 attack.
Chen pleaded guilty earlier this month to three counts of second-degree murder and two counts of first-degree manslaughter for slaughtering Qiaozhen Li, 37, and her kids, Linda, 9, Kevin, 5, Amy, 7, and William, 1.
Li’s husband, Yilin Zhuo, is Chen’s cousin.
Sources said at the time Chen was envious because the family, who lived in Sunset Park, “had too much” and had a “better lifestyle” than him.
Mom Qiao Zhen Li and kids (from left) Amy Zhuo, 7, Linda Zhuo, 9, William Zhuo, 1, and Kevin Zhuo, 5, were murdered in the stabbing spree.A family friend said Li had tried in vain to kick Chen out of her home, where he had been staying for a week before the murders.
The illegal alien had been facing deportation in the months prior to the attack, after his application for asylum — and subsequent appeals — were all denied following his 2004 arrival in the United States.
The stabbing spree erupted when Li yelled at Chen for slapping one of her children, a housemate of her sister-in-law previously told The Post.
“He is coming with the knife,” Li’s frantic final words were to her mother-in-law, whom she phoned in China before being killed.
Zhuo and her brother, Yilin Zhuo, Li’s widower and father of the four slain children, were in tears Tuesday as they exited the courtroom after the sentencing.
“What do you do with a person who murdered children?” asked Justice Vincent DelGiudice before handing down the promised sentence. “It is the earnest hope of the court . . . that you never again are allowed to be free and spend the rest of your life in a cage.”
Chen, who suffers from an undisclosed mental illness, had previously been found mentally unfit for trial.
He told cops shortly after his arrest that he went on the massacre because his family tried to move him to a noisy spot in Queens and he couldn’t sleep.
“A few days ago, my cousin took me to Flushing to stay there. It’s a mah-jongg spot,” Chen told cops, according to court papers.
“I didn’t like staying there because it was too loud. So I argued and took a knife to them.”
