On Friday A New Hampshire woman was sentenced to 53 years to life in prison in the death of her 5-year-old son, who was beaten, starved and exposed to drugs before his 19-pound body was found buried in a Massachusetts park in 2021.
“I’m so sorry Elijah that I failed you as your mother,” Danielle Dauphinais said in court, reading a letter that recounted her life as an abused and abandoned child. She broke down, crying, and one of her attorneys finished reading it.
Dauphinais, 38, was facing a trial in Nashua but pleaded guilty last month to second-degree murder and other charges in the death of her son Elijah Lewis in an agreement with prosecutors.
Prosecutors had asked for a 55-year sentence. The defense asked for 35 years, the minimum term. Dauphinais also received three to seven additional years on lesser offenses.
Elijah’s autopsy showed he suffered facial and scalp injuries, acute fentanyl intoxication, malnourishment and pressure ulcers.
Prosecutors said Elijah was tortured and neglected. He was confined for long periods of time in a bathroom tub, often naked, and monitored via video. In the end, he couldn’t stand, they said, showing photos of him over a 16-month period getting progressively thinner. One of his eyes was shut in the last photo.
Dauphinais was divorced from Elijah’s father, who had been caring for the boy in Arizona. He brought Elijah to her in New Hampshire in May 2020. Her lawyers said the child had “severe psychiatric issues” and neither parent got him an evaluation. But Judge Charles Temple said that expletive-ridden, hateful texts she sent her boyfriend about her son and her actions were damning.
“You knew exactly what you were doing to Elijah. You were killing him, hour by hour, day by day, month by month,” he said.
Dauphinais’ boyfriend, Joseph Stapf, pleaded guilty to manslaughter, second-degree assault, falsifying physical evidence and witness tampering in 2022 in connection with the boy’s death. He was sentenced to 22 to 45 years in prison.
Prosecutors read a series of texts between Stapf and Dauphinais that expressed hostility toward Elijah and frustration if he didn’t behave according to their wishes.
“He said he wants food and he wants me to stop starving him because it’s not nice,” one said. Another message read, “I’m gonna kill him and I mean it,” and another said, “I hit him with the shower rod that’s all I did.”
Stapf had texted Dauphinais to give Elijah more food to “fatten him up.”
Defense attorney Benjamin Faulkner said Dauphinais’ texts were sent out of desperation because Elijah showed aggressive behavior that she was unable to manage while as she was taking care of another child. She also was pregnant and abusing fentanyl and heroin. Dauphinais said her ex-husband wouldn’t provide his insurance information for her to seek help.
Prosecutors said she shifted blame and responsibility to the father and others.
“She did nothing to help Elijah,” prosecutor Bethany Durand said.
Elijah lived with Dauphinais, Stapf, and the 2-year-old daughter she had with Stapf in the basement of a home where Stapf’s mother also lived.
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