A New Hampshire lady was sentenced Friday to 53 years to life in jail within the loss of life of her 5-year-old son, who was crushed, starved and uncovered to medicine 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 your mother,” Danielle Dauphinais mentioned in courtroom, studying a letter that recounted her life as an abused and deserted little one. She broke down, crying, and one in all her attorneys completed studying it.
Dauphinais, 38, was going through a trial in Nashua however pleaded responsible final month to second-degree homicide and different costs within the loss of life of her son Elijah Lewis in an settlement with prosecutors.
Prosecutors had requested for a 55-year sentence. The protection requested for 35 years, the minimal time period. Dauphinais additionally obtained three to seven further years on lesser offenses.
Elijah’s post-mortem confirmed he suffered facial and scalp accidents, acute fentanyl intoxication, malnourishment and stress ulcers.
Prosecutors mentioned Elijah was tortured and uncared for.
He was confined for lengthy intervals of time in a rest room tub, usually bare, and monitored through video.
In the long run, he couldn’t stand, they mentioned, displaying images of him over a 16-month interval getting progressively thinner. One in all his eyes was shut within the final photograph.
Dauphinais was divorced from Elijah’s father, who had been caring for the boy in Arizona. He introduced Elijah to her in New Hampshire in Could 2020.
Her attorneys mentioned the kid had “severe psychiatric issues” and neither mother or father bought him an analysis.
However Choose Charles Temple mentioned that expletive-ridden, hateful texts she despatched her boyfriend about her son and her actions had been damning.
“You knew exactly what you were doing to Elijah. You were killing him, hour by hour, day by day, month by month,” he mentioned.
Dauphinais’ boyfriend, Joseph Stapf, pleaded responsible to manslaughter, second-degree assault, falsifying bodily proof and witness tampering in 2022 in reference to the boy’s loss of life.
He was sentenced to 22 to 45 years in jail.
Prosecutors learn a sequence of texts between Stapf and Dauphinais that expressed hostility towards Elijah and frustration if he didn’t behave in line with their needs.
“He said he wants food and he wants me to stop starving him because it’s not nice,” one mentioned. One other message learn, “I’m gonna kill him and I mean it,” and one other mentioned, “I hit him with the shower rod that’s all I did.”
Stapf had texted Dauphinais to provide Elijah extra meals to “fatten him up.”
Protection legal professional Benjamin Faulkner mentioned Dauphinais’ texts had been despatched out of desperation as a result of Elijah confirmed aggressive habits that she was unable to handle whereas as she was caring for one other little one.
She additionally was pregnant and abusing fentanyl and heroin.
Dauphinais mentioned her ex-husband wouldn’t present his insurance coverage info for her to hunt assist.
Prosecutors mentioned she shifted blame and accountability to the daddy and others.
“She did nothing to help Elijah,” prosecutor Bethany Durand mentioned.
Elijah lived with Dauphinais, Stapf, and the 2-year-old daughter she had with Stapf within the basement of a house the place Stapf’s mom additionally lived.
By that fall, Elijah’s father, Timothy Lewis, turned involved that Elijah wasn’t getting correct medical care and contacted the state Division for Youngsters, Youth and Households.
Elijah had developmental challenges and a troublesome habits sample that worsened in New Hampshire, Lewis mentioned in a wrongful loss of life lawsuit filed earlier this 12 months towards Dauphinais, Stapf, Stapf’s mom, and the kid companies company.
Faulkner mentioned Lewis informed the kid companies company that he couldn’t take Elijah again as a result of he was involved for the security of different youngsters residing in his house. The stress was placed on Dauphinais, “who didn’t have the ability to deal with it,” Faulkner mentioned.
A separate decide on Friday granted the state company a partial dismissal within the case.
A lawyer for Stapf’s mom denied allegations in a courtroom submitting. No attorneys are listed for Stapf and Dauphinais within the lawsuit.
Elijah weighed 32 kilos and had bruises on his face, eye and arm at a November 2020 physician go to, prosecutors mentioned.
Dauphinais later informed the company that her son was despatched to California to reside with Dauphinais’ sister, a custody association the daddy had agreed to, however Dauphinais didn’t comply with by, prosecutors mentioned.
By October 2021, Dauphinais had given start to a boy at house, prosecutors mentioned. Stapf introduced the toddler to a hospital with the intent to go away him there.
The hospital discovered proof of medicine within the child and contacted the kid companies company, which opened an investigation.
The company may discover no indicators of Elijah.
Dauphinais mentioned her son was together with her sister, after which a person she described as her brother however turned out to be a pal.
Each the sister and pal 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 introduced him to the Massachusetts park, the place Stapf dug a gap and buried him, prosecutors mentioned.
When Elijah was nonetheless lacking, Stapf and Dauphinais had been arrested in New York. Days after their arrest, Elijah’s stays had been discovered.
Prosecutors mentioned that when Elijah was discovered, he was 3 ft tall and weighed 19 kilos, whereas a median 5-year-old boy could be about 3.6 ft tall and nearer to 40 kilos.
Lewis addressed the courtroom through telephone on Friday, saying he may by no means forgive Dauphinais for her actions and wished she could be haunted by the loss of life of their son. Faulkner mentioned she is.
