NASHUA, N.H (WHDH) - A New Hampshire woman was sentenced Friday to at least 50 years in prison for the murder of her 5-year-old son.
Danielle Dauphinais, 38, pleaded guilty to killing Elijah Lewis in 2021. She cried in court while reading a statement to the judge.
“Today is about Danielle Dauphinais. Today is about this defendant and her heinous actions,” prosecutor Meghan Hagaman said.
Prosecutors in a Nashua, N.H. courtroom outlined the torture Elijah, of Merrimack, N.H., endured at the hands of his mother.
Dauphinais admitted last month during a plea deal that she murdered her son and buried his body with the help of her boyfriend, Joseph Stapf, at a state park in Abington, back in October 2021.
“The defendant spent minutes, hours, days, weeks, months torturing her son,” Hagaman said.
At the sentencing, prosecutors highlighted texts Dauphinais sent to her boyfriend.
“I’m gonna kill him and I mean it,” Hagaman read to the courtroom. “I’m gonna bang out this child.”
Prior to sentencing, Dauphinais read a typed statement to the judge professing her love for her son, before being unable to finish.
The judge held up a picture of Elijah, calling this case one that will stay with him forever.
“It’s an abhorrent, heinous, prolonged terror and torture of a 5-year-old boy inspired by pure hate,” the judge said.
Dauphinais was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison, plus another three to seven years on two additional charges.
She will be eligible for parole in 2074, when she is 88 years old.
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