The man police say killed his wife inside their Simsbury home on Friday morning appeared before a judge Monday in Hartford Superior Court.
Ding Sheng Lin, with the help of an interpreter speaking Mandarin, was arraigned on a murder charge. The judge kept the 50-year-old’s bond at $2.5 million.
According to court documents, police were called to the home just before 11:30 a.m. Friday after the couple’s 18-year-old called 911. The teen said they woke up to the sounds of an argument in an upstairs bedroom, and 49-year-old Qiu Rongfang screaming for help.
The teen told officers they texted their sister what was going on and then yelled upstairs in Chinese, “What are you guys doing?” After asking the question twice, no one responded.
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“I was too scared to go upstairs,” the teen said in the affidavit.
Once officers arrived, they said Lin disobeyed orders. The state’s attorney pointed that out in the courtroom Monday, in their effort to get bond raised to $3.5 million.
“He disregarded commands to come down the stairs, ran into the bedroom and shut the door, where the officers found him on top of the victim,” the attorney said.
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Police said they kicked in the door and tore Lin off of his wife. They found she had stab wounds to the throat and was lying on the floor between a bed and a wall.
The responding officers performed life-saving measures, but Rongfang was pronounced dead at the hospital.
“There is a language barrier here. He may not have understood the police officer’s instructions. Although the police report says yes he was on top of the victim, he could have been trying to render first aid,” Louis Klein, Lin’s defense attorney, said.
While a motive is unclear, Klein said his client has received psychiatric help in the past, and requested an evaluation to see if he’s competent to stand trial.
“Based on my interactions,” Klein said to the judge, “he does seem to be exhibiting some inability to understand what’s happening here.”
The state also raised the issue that Lin primarily lives in Florida, using that as another reason to get his bond increased.
“One of the children of this defendant stated that he does not reside in Simsbury, and in fact that he lives out of state in Florida. The state would have concerns about the fact whether or not he’d show up in court,” the attorney said.
Klein responded by saying Lin has lived in Simsbury for six years, own his home there and hired him as private counsel which shows he is taking the case seriously.
His next court date is June 18.
