A New Hampshire girl was sentenced Friday to life in jail on the age of 53 the death of her 5-year-old son, who was overwhelmed, starved and drugged earlier than his 19kg physique was discovered buried in a Massachusetts park in 2021.
“I am so sorry, Elijah, that I failed you as your mom,” Danielle Dauphine stated in court docket, studying from a letter that recounted her life as an abused and deserted little one. She cried and certainly one of her attorneys learn it.
Dauphine, 38, confronted trial in Nashua however pleaded responsible final month to second-degree homicide and different costs in the death of her son Elijah Lewis in settlement with the prosecution.
Prosecutors had requested for a 55-year sentence. The protection requested for 35 years, the minimal time period. Dauphine additionally acquired an extra three to seven years for lesser crimes.
Elijah’s post-mortem confirmed he suffered facial and scalp accidents, acute fentanyl intoxication, malnutrition, and strain ulcers.
Prosecutors stated Elijah was tortured and uncared for.
He was confined for lengthy intervals of time in a bath, typically bare, and monitored by video.
Finally he could not take it, they stated, displaying footage of him over a 16-month interval progressively dropping pounds. Within the final photograph, certainly one of his eyes was closed.
Dauphiné was divorced from Elijah’s father, who was taking good care of the boy in Arizona. He introduced Elijah to her in New Hampshire in Might 2020.
Her attorneys stated the kid had “extreme psychiatric issues” and neither guardian had examined him.
However Choose Charles Temple stated the profanity, hateful texts she sent her boyfriend about her son and her actions had been reprehensible.
“You knew precisely what you had been doing to Elijah. You killed him hour after hour, day after day, month after month,” he stated.
Dauphine’s boyfriend, Joseph Stapf, pleaded responsible to manslaughter, second-degree assault, tampering with bodily proof and witness tampering in 2022 in reference to the boy’s dying.
He was sentenced to 22 to 45 years in jail.
Prosecutors learn a collection of texts between Stapf and Dauphinais that expressed hostility towards Elijah and frustration if he didn’t behave in keeping with their needs.
“He stated he needs meals and he needs me to cease ravenous him as a result of it isn’t good,” stated one. One other message learn: “I’ll kill him and I imply it,” whereas one other stated: “I hit him with the bathe rod, that is all I did.”
Stapf despatched phrase to the Dauphine to offer Elijah extra meals to “fats” him.
Protection lawyer Benjamin Faulkner stated Dauphiné’s messages had been despatched out of desperation as a result of Ilya had displayed aggressive habits that she couldn’t management whereas caring for an additional little one.
She was additionally pregnant and abusing fentanyl and heroin.
Dauphine stated her ex-husband wouldn’t present his insurance coverage info so she might search assist.
Prosecutors stated she shifted blame and duty to the daddy and others.
“She did nothing to assist Elijah,” stated prosecutor Bethany Durand.
Ilia lived with Dauphiné, Stapf and the 2-year-old daughter he had with Stapf within the basement of a house the place Stapf’s mom additionally lived.
That fall, Elijah’s father, Timothy Lewis, grew to become involved that Elijah was not receiving correct medical care and contacted the state Division of Youngsters, Youth and Households.
Elijah had developmental challenges and a troublesome sample of habits that worsened in New Hampshire, Lewis stated in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed earlier this yr towards Dauphinais, Stapf, Stapf’s mom and the kid welfare company.
Faulkner stated Lewis informed the kid welfare company he could not take Elijah again as a result of he was apprehensive concerning the security of the opposite kids dwelling in his house. The strain was placed on the Dauphine “who did not have the power to deal with it,” Faulkner stated.
A separate choose on Friday granted the state company a partial discharge within the case.
An lawyer for Stapf’s mom denied the allegations in a lawsuit. Attorneys for Stapf and Dauphinais should not named within the lawsuit.
Elijah weighed 32 kilos and had bruises on his face, eye and arm at a physician’s go to in November 2020, prosecutors stated.
Dauphine later informed the company that her son had been despatched to California to dwell with Dauphine’s sister, a custody association the daddy agreed to however Dauphine didn’t comply with by means of on, prosecutors stated.
By October 2021, Dauphiné had given beginning to a boy at house, prosecutors stated. Stapf took the newborn to a hospital with the intention of leaving him there.
The hospital discovered proof of medicine within the child and contacted the kid welfare company, which started an investigation.
The company might discover no hint of Ilya.
Dauphine stated her son was together with her sister after which a person she described as her brother however turned out to be a buddy.
Each the sister and the buddy informed investigators that Dauphine contacted them and requested them to lie about Elijah’s whereabouts.
Prosecutors imagine Elijah died in September 2021 and the couple positioned his physique in a container and introduced it to Massachusetts Park, the place Stapf dug a gap and buried him, prosecutors stated.
When Elijah was nonetheless lacking, Stapf and Dauphines are arrested in New York. Days after their arrest, Ilya’s mortal stays had been found.
Prosecutors stated that when Elijah was found, he was 3 ft tall and weighed 19 kilos, whereas a mean 5-year-old boy can be about 3.6 ft tall and nearer to 40 kilos.
Louis addressed the court docket by telephone Friday, saying he might by no means forgive the Dauphiné for her actions and wished her to be haunted by their son’s dying. Faulkner stated it was.
