A judge in The Bronx has determined that Dimone Fleming, 26, is not criminally responsible for the 2022 murders of her two sons due to mental illness. Fleming was diagnosed with postpartum psychosis at the time of the incident, during which she fatally stabbed her children, 3-year-old Daishawn Fleming and 11-month-old Octavius Canada, at a family shelter in the Bronx, according to the New York Times. The court’s ruling highlights the complexities surrounding mental health and criminal responsibility in cases of severe psychological distress.
The Massachusetts mother is facing three counts of murder in the killings of her children Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and Callan, 8 months. A shelter employee called 911 to report that water and smoke were coming from Fleming’s apartment on the night of November 26, 2022. She will be re-evaluated by court-appointed psychiatrists, and is scheduled to return to court on September 18.
Fleming is not being released from custody yet.
Police found Fleming “acting irrationally,” and she was then taken to the hospital for evaluation. Initially, police did not find the murdered children buried under a pile of clothes in the bathtub since a neighbor told them the kids were with their father. Jurors said in court this week that trying Fleming for double murder would not serve justice.
This comes as jurors are in the middle of deliberating a similar fate for Lindsay Clancy . Later, Fleming’s then-boyfriend Columbus Canada, Octavius’ father, found the two children unresponsive in the apartment. He then called the police.
There, she was diagnosed with major depressive disorder and prescribed psychotropic medication, according to court records, per the New York Times. “Ms. Fleming believed her actions were necessary to protect or ‘cleanse’ her children,” stated a forensic psychiatrist report written by doctors hired by the defense. However, she did not take her medication as prescribed and instead used marijuana daily, which made her mental health symptoms even worse.
Fleming had been treated at a Queens hospital for two months before the murders.
