by NANCIE L. KATZ
A city firefighter yesterday told a Brooklyn jury how he and his partner tried valiantly to save twin infants who prosecutors say were suffocated by their mother.
"We saw a female holding two babies," said Firefighter Bill McNally, whose Engine 283 in Brownsville arrived first on Oct.20, 2005, at the home of Ingrid Mathurin.
"Lt. [Joseph] Sweeney grabbed one, and I grabbed the other one. I ran to EMS right behind us."
Mathurin is on trial in Brooklyn Supreme Court, charged with criminally negligent homicide in the deaths of her 3-month-old sons, I-ses and Moor-Fatiyeh.
In opening arguments yesterday, prosecutor Roger McCreedy accused Mathurin, then 21, of trying to stifle their screams by rubbing their backs hard and pressing their tiny heads into a crib mattress, suffocating them.
"The hands that were supposed to be nurturing instead caused the deaths of her two children," he said.
Mathurin, who also had a 2-year-old, allegedly told cops she was stressed, tired and depressed when the infants, born July 27, 2005, cried persistently.
Her lawyer Michael Millet said she never intentionally hurt her babies.
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