A Manhattan couple that abducted their eight children from a Queens foster care facility during a supervised visit on September 19, has been sentenced to 60 days in jail after pleading guilty to second-degree custodial interference.
“Today’s sentence is a just and fair disposition of this case, said DA Brown, “The defendants are held accountable for their actions and the children will be spared having to testify against their parents at trial.”
The defendants are identified as Shanel Nadal, 28, and Nephra Payne, 34, of Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan. The defendants pleaded guilty last month to two counts of second degree custodial interference before Queens Criminal Court Judge Elisa Koenderman who imposed today’s determinate sentence of 60 days in jail and three years’ probation.
According to the charges, during a supervised visit with their children at the Forestdale Agency, located at 67-35 112th Street in Forest Hills, on September 19, 2011, Shanel Nadal and Nephra Payne sneaked their biological children, who were in the custody of the Administration for Children’s Services at the time, out of the rear of the facility to an unknown location without permission or authority to do so.
They were arrested on Monday, September 26, 2011, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, by members of the U.S. Marshals Service Regional Fugitive Task Force –including members of the New York City Police Department – after they were pulled over in a black Ford Econoline on Berry Hill Street in Harrisburg, at approximately 10:20 p.m. Both defendants and the eight missing children were in the vehicle. They were returned to Queens on October 13, 2011.
