A New Hampshire girl was sentenced Friday to 53 years to life in jail within the dying 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 mom,” Danielle Dauphinais mentioned in court docket, studying a letter that recounted her life as an abused and deserted baby. 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 fees within the dying 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 acquired three to seven further years on lesser offenses.
Elijah’s post-mortem confirmed he suffered facial and scalp accidents, acute fentanyl intoxication, malnourishment and strain ulcers.
Prosecutors mentioned Elijah was tortured and uncared for.
He was confined for lengthy intervals of time in a toilet tub, usually bare, and monitored by way of video.
In the long run, he couldn’t stand, they mentioned, displaying images of him over a 16-month interval getting progressively thinner. Considered one of his eyes was shut within the final picture.
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 legal professionals mentioned the kid had “extreme psychiatric points” and neither father or mother acquired him an analysis.
However Decide Charles Temple mentioned that expletive-ridden, hateful texts she despatched her boyfriend about her son and her actions have been damning.
“You knew precisely what you have been doing to Elijah. You have been killing him, hour by hour, daily, 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 dying.
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 keeping with their needs.
“He mentioned he desires meals and he desires me to cease ravenous him as a result of it’s not good,” one mentioned. One other message learn, “I’m gonna kill him and I imply it,” and one other mentioned, “I hit him with the bathe rod that’s all I did.”
Stapf had texted Dauphinais to offer Elijah extra meals to “fatten him up.”
Protection legal professional Benjamin Faulkner mentioned Dauphinais’ texts have been despatched out of desperation as a result of Elijah confirmed aggressive conduct that she was unable to handle whereas as she was caring for one other baby.
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 duty to the daddy and others.
“She did nothing to assist 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, grew to become involved that Elijah wasn’t getting correct medical care and contacted the state Division for Kids, Youth and Households.
Elijah had developmental challenges and a tough conduct sample that worsened in New Hampshire, Lewis mentioned in a wrongful dying lawsuit filed earlier this yr in opposition to Dauphinais, Stapf, Stapf’s mom, and the kid companies company.
Faulkner mentioned Lewis instructed the kid companies company that he couldn’t take Elijah again as a result of he was involved for the protection of different youngsters residing in his dwelling. The strain was placed on Dauphinais, “who didn’t have the flexibility to cope with it,” Faulkner mentioned.
A separate choose on Friday granted the state company a partial dismissal within the case.
A lawyer for Stapf’s mom denied allegations in a court docket 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 instructed 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 observe by means of, prosecutors mentioned.
By October 2021, Dauphinais had given start to a boy at dwelling, prosecutors mentioned. Stapf introduced the toddler to a hospital with the intent to depart him there.
The hospital discovered proof of medicine within the child and contacted the kid companies company, which opened an investigation.
The company might 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 instructed investigators that Dauphinais had contacted them and requested them to lie about Elijah’s whereabouts.
Prosecutors imagine 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 have been arrested in New York. Days after their arrest, Elijah’s stays have been discovered.
Prosecutors mentioned that when Elijah was discovered, he was 3 toes tall and weighed 19 kilos, whereas a mean 5-year-old boy could be about 3.6 toes tall and nearer to 40 kilos.
Lewis addressed the court docket by way of telephone on Friday, saying he might by no means forgive Dauphinais for her actions and wished she could be haunted by the dying of their son. Faulkner mentioned she is.
