A New Hampshire girl was sentenced Friday to 53 years to life in jail for the loss of life of her 5-year-old son, who was overwhelmed, starved and uncovered to medication earlier than his 19-pound physique was discovered buried in a Massachusetts park in 2021. .
“I’m so sorry, Elijah, that I failed you as a mom,” Danielle Dauphinais stated in courtroom, studying from a letter that recounted her life as an abused and deserted little one. She burst into tears and considered one of her attorneys completed studying it.
Dauphinais, 38, was going through trial in Nashua, however final month pleaded responsible to second-degree homicide and different costs within the loss of life of his son Elijah Lewis in a take care of prosecutors.
Prosecutors had requested for a 55-year sentence. The protection requested for 35 years, the minimal time period. Dauphinais additionally obtained a further three to seven years for misdemeanors.
Elijah’s post-mortem confirmed he suffered facial and scalp accidents, acute fentanyl poisoning, malnutrition, and strain ulcers.
Prosecutors stated Elijah was tortured and deserted. He was confined for lengthy durations of time in a toilet tub, usually bare, and monitored by video. In the long run, he could not rise up, they stated, displaying images of him over a 16-month interval getting progressively thinner. Certainly one of his eyes was closed within the final photograph.
Dauphinais was divorced from Elijah’s father, who had been caring for the boy in Arizona. He introduced Elijah to New Hampshire in Could 2020. His attorneys stated the boy had “critical psychiatric issues” and neither father or mother gave him an analysis. However Decide Charles Temple stated the hateful, insult-filled messages she despatched to her boyfriend about her son and his actions had been damning.
“You knew precisely what you had been doing to Elijah. “They had been killing him, hour after hour, day after day, month after month,” he stated.
Dauphinais’ boyfriend, Joseph Stapf, pleaded responsible to involuntary manslaughter, second-degree assault, tampering with bodily proof and witness tampering in 2022 in reference to the boy’s loss of life. He was sentenced to between 22 and 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 response to their needs.
“He stated he desires meals and needs me to cease ravenous him as a result of it isn’t good,” one stated. One other message stated, “I will kill him and I imply it,” and one other stated, “I hit him with the bathe rod, that is all I did.”
Stapf had texted Dauphinais to offer Elijah extra meals to “fatten him up.”
Protection lawyer Benjamin Faulkner stated Dauphinais’ textual content messages had been despatched out of desperation as a result of Elijah displayed aggressive habits that he could not deal with whereas caring for one more little one. She was additionally pregnant and abusing fentanyl and heroin. Dauphinais stated her ex-husband didn’t present her insurance coverage data for her to hunt assist.
Prosecutors stated she positioned blame and duty on the daddy and others.
“She did nothing to assist Elijah,” prosecutor Bethany Durand stated.
Elijah lived with Dauphinais, Stapf and the 2-year-old daughter he had with Stapf within the basement of a home the place Stapf’s mom additionally lived.
By that fall, Elijah’s father, Timothy Lewis, grew to become involved that Elijah was not receiving sufficient medical care and contacted the state Division of Kids, Youth and Households. Elijah had developmental challenges and a tough sample of habits that worsened in New Hampshire, Lewis stated in a wrongful loss of life lawsuit filed earlier this 12 months towards Dauphinais, Stapf, Stapf’s mom and the kid providers company.
Faulkner stated Lewis informed the kid providers company he could not take Elijah as a result of he was anxious concerning the security of different youngsters dwelling in his residence. The strain fell on Dauphinais, “who did not have the power to take care of it,” Faulkner stated.
An unbiased choose on Friday granted the state company a partial dismissal of the case. A lawyer for Stapf’s mom denied the allegations in a courtroom submitting. Legal professionals for Stapf and Dauphinais should not named within the lawsuit.
Elijah weighed 32 kilos (14.5 kilograms) and had bruising on his face, eyes and arm at a health care provider’s go to in November 2020, prosecutors stated. Dauphinais later informed the company that his son was despatched to California to stay with Dauphinais’ sister, a custody settlement the daddy had agreed to, however Dauphinais didn’t observe by way of, prosecutors stated.
In October 2021, Dauphinais had given beginning to a toddler at residence, prosecutors stated. Stapf took the infant to a hospital with the intention of leaving him there. The hospital discovered proof of medicine on the infant and contacted the kid providers company, which opened an investigation. The company may discover no signal of Elijah.
Dauphinais stated her son was along with his sister after which with a person he described as his brother however who turned out to be a buddy. Each the sister and buddy informed investigators that Dauphinais had contacted them and requested them to lie about Elijah’s whereabouts.
Prosecutors consider Elijah died in September 2021 and the couple put his physique in a container and took it to the Massachusetts park, the place Stapf dug a gap and buried him, prosecutors stated.
Whereas Elijah was nonetheless lacking, Stapf and Dauphinais had been arrested in New York. Days after his arrest, Elijah’s stays had been discovered.
Prosecutors stated that when Elijah was discovered, he was 3 toes (91 centimeters) tall and weighed 19 kilos (8.6 kilograms), whereas a median 5-year-old little one could be about 3.6 toes (1.1 meters) tall. tall and about 40 kilos. (18 kilograms).
Lewis addressed the courtroom by cellphone Friday and stated she may by no means forgive Dauphinais for his actions and needed her son’s loss of life to hang-out her. Faulkner stated sure.