Son Pleads Not Guilty to Charge of Murdering His Mother

On Feb. 6, shortly after being arrested, Jared Eng appeared at his first arraignment in Criminal Court. Pool Photo

Jared Eng pleaded not guilty Wednesday to murdering his mother, Paula Chin, a longtime Tribeca resident and business owner.

His long hair shorn and looking wan as he sat briefly before Judge Maxwell Wiley during arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court, Eng, 22, entered the plea in a hushed, barely audible voice. Following Eng’s appearance, his lawyer, Joel Cohen, declined to comment on his client’s defense.

A grand jury indicted Eng on a charge of murder in the second degree following an autopsy that concluded that Chin, 65, had suffered “multiple impacts of head and stab wound of neck.” He is being held without bail.

Along with his reported girlfriend, Jennifer Lopez, 18, Eng had already been charged with three counts of hindering prosecution in the first degree, three counts of tampering with physical evidence, and one count of concealment of a human corpse. Eng has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

Prosecutors say that Eng and Lopez removed the dead mother’s body from her apartment on Vestry Street and disposed of it in a garbage bag on her Morristown, NJ, property, making two trips to New Jersey in the process. Eng claimed he made the first trip in order to retrieve a coin collection and sell it for rent, and the next to look for an apartment, according to court papers.  

Caitlyn O’Rourke, 22, another friend of Eng’s who was arrested early this month in the case, has not been indicted.

Eng’s next court appearance is scheduled for April 10, allowing time for Cohen, his lawyer, to examine the prosecution’s evidence.