By Cynthia Koons
Avinash Roopkhum, a 26-year-old man from Fresh Meadows, was found dead in the motel Saturday morning around 5 a.m., according to police.By midnight Saturday, police had arrested Qwanyel Cullins, a 21-year-old Brooklyn woman and charged her with murder.A spokeswoman for Queens District Attorney Richard Brown's office said Cullins was charged with murder, several counts of tampering with evidence and criminal possession of a weapon.She was arraigned in front of Judge Stephen Knopf in Queens Criminal Court and could face 25 years to life in prison if convicted. Her attorney had not yet been selected as of Tuesday.According to Cullins' statement, she met Roopkhum on the subway and went to the South Ozone Park hotel with him. He became rough with her, she said in court documents, and she had to punch him to get him off of her.”I hit him with my knife when he came at me. I stabbed him,” she said in court documents.Cullins said she threw the knife in the dumpster with her bag. She took the $40 he had with him and threw the credit cards, wallet and the rest of his belongings in the sewer, she said. He had promised to pay her $370, according to Cullins' testimony. According to the police report, she struck him several times in the head with a sheathed knife, a type of Japanese blade. She then stabbed him several times in the face, police said.The manager for the Econo Lodge at 113-18 Rockaway Blvd. did not return calls for comment.Members of Roopkhum's family could not be reached for comment.
