SOUTH BRONX — The Bronx woman accused of stabbing her husband to death was a battered wife who was still bruised and injured on the day of her first court appearance, her lawyer said.
Yanny Mejia, 31, was arraigned Monday in Bronx Criminal Court on charges of murder, manslaughter, assault and weapon possession for killing her husband Nelson Mejia, 32, by stabbing him in the chest, according to her criminal complaint.
However, her lawyer Steven Goldman said that her husband beat and abused her to the point where she was still bruised and injured on Monday, and he plans to use a justification defense going forward, meaning she attacked her husband in self-defense.
"There is evidence that she was battered," he said. "We are going to fight this very vigorously."
Police discovered Nelson Mejia, a father of two, unconscious with a stab wound to his chest in the apartment he shared with his wife at 1277 Shakespeare Ave. near West 169th Street roughly 6:30 a.m. on Sunday, and he was later pronounced dead at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital.
The attack occurred in the wake of a domestic dispute, police said.
Yanny Mejia is due back in court on Dec. 11, when she will announce whether or not she will testify before a grand jury, according to the Bronx District Attorney's Office.
