St. Paul mom charged with using pliers on girl is in new trouble

A St. Paul woman charged last month with using channel lock pliers to punish her 7-year-old daughter now has been accused of threatening to kill her husband, the 7-year-old and two of their other children.

Mai Neng Xiong, 39, was charged Wednesday in Ramsey County District Court with two felony counts of terroristic threats. She pleaded guilty on Dec. 14 to a felony charge of malicious punishment of a child and was free on bail when the alleged threats occurred on Saturday.

According to the complaint made public Thursday: Xiong's husband, identified in the complaint by his initials, P.L., told police that he met Xiong in a Kmart parking lot on St. Paul's East Side because Xiong had been ordered not to have any unsupervised contact with her children.

As they sat in P.L.'s car, the complaint said, "Xiong said she did not understand why her child [the 7-year-old] did not die. Xiong said she planned to kill [the 7-year-old] and two of her other children," the document said. She said also was going to kill P.L. and herself.

She threatened to set fire to newspapers in P.L.'s car and he had to wrest a lighter away from her when she tried, according to the complaint.

District Judge Joanne Smith on Wednesday set Xiong's bail at $30,000 and ordered her to undergo a mental-health evaluation. Her next court date is Jan. 5. She is scheduled to be sentenced on the malicious punishment charge on Jan. 25.

PAT PHEIFER