The unhinged Bronx hospital patient who allegedly beat her sleeping roommate to death in an unprovoked attack last month was arrested this week, cops said — as investigators revealed she has a twisted history of attacking medical staff.
Raquel Haughton, 44, was picked up on a warrant at her Bronx home Monday afternoon — more than a month after she allegedly slugged 55-year-old Cynthia Vann multiple times on the eighth floor of Lincoln Medical Center, cops and prosecutors said.
She was charged with manslaughter and felony assault and ordered held without bail during her Tuesday arraignment.
Vann checked in at the hospital on Sept. 10 for liver treatment, her family told News 12 at the time.
On Vann’s first day at the medical center, Haughton allegedly pummeled her as she slept in her bed, according to the family and law enforcement sources.
Vann succumbed to her injuries on Sept. 27, according to police.
“It’s heartbreaking. I’m broken inside. It’s very difficult. My mom was my support system. She was really all I had,” Vann’s daughter Taneisha Vann told News 12.
“She didn’t deserve this. No one deserves to be assaulted at a hospital while you’re sleeping,” the grieving daughter added. “You’re supposed to feel safe.”
Meanwhile, Haughton was arrested the day after the attack for allegedly slapping a patient aide who was taking her vital signs, the Bronx District Attorney’s Office said.
“Why do you squeeze my hand so hard?” she seethed at the staffer, according to a criminal complaint.
While in custody for that assault, investigators also connected Haughton to the attack on Vann — but prosecutors said they deferred the case because of a lack of evidence.
Prosecutors asked for Haughton to be held on $30,000 bail or $90,000 bond in connection with the attack on the aide, but a judge instead ordered her held on $5,000 bail or $1,000 bond, the DA’s office said.
She stayed on Rikers Island until Sept. 17, when her attorney pleaded for her release — which a judge ultimately granted the next day over prosecutors’ objections.
Haughton also has a prior arrest for allegedly punching a nurse at the same hospital back on July 19, the DA’s office said. The circumstances of her release were not immediately clear.
She was also released on her own recognizance in connection to a July 30 arrest for petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property in Manhattan, sources said.
Haughton also spent about two years in state prison — from February of 2020 to April of 2022 – on a Brooklyn attempted assault conviction, records show.
