NYC mother found NOT GUILTY of killing her 2 young children, postpartum defense successful

Dimone Fleming, 26, was found not to be responsible because of her mental state in court on Monday after she killed two of her children, 3-year-old Daishawn Fleming and 11-month-old Octavius Canada, per the New York Times. Fleming submerged the two young boys in a bathtub on November 26, 2022, killing them.

Fleming was initially charged with first-degree murder, but was found not guilty by reason of insanity. According to psychiatrist Dr. Eric Goldsmith, Fleming was “grossly psychotic and out of touch with reality" the night of the killings at a family shelter.

“Ms. Fleming believed her actions were necessary to protect or ‘cleanse’ her children,” a forensic psychologist wrote in a report that was made for the defense. Fleming had been going to a Queens hospital for two months leading up to the killings, where she was being treated for major depressive disorder and was given psychiatric drugs.

Instead of using the medication, however, Fleming took marijuana instead. Examinations that were ordered by both the prosecution and defense in the case determined that she was in psychosis at the time of the killings. Symptoms of psychosis include hallucinations, delusions, and other negative psychiatric symptoms.

When police were called to the shelter on the night of the killings, it was for water and smoke coming from her apartment. Police took her away as she was "acting irrationally." However, at the time, the cops did not notice the two boys covered in a pile of clothes in the bathtub.

“Prosecuting mothers does not and cannot prevent these crimes from happening, but public discourse might,” Bronx assistant district attorney Tiffany Wichman said. “People talking about it is important, and I hope people continue talking about it.”

The case comes to light as there has been concentrated media attention around the case of Lindsay Clancy, who killed her three children by strangulation with exercise bands. After killing her kids, Clancy slit her wrists and neck and then jumped out a window in an effort to kill herself. Her defense has argued that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time of the killings. There have also been mass waves of support for Clancy despite her taking the lives of her children, with some even floating the conspiracy that Clancy’s ex-husband, Patrick Clancy, carried out the killings.