By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org
Accused of murdering her five-year-old boy and leaving his broken body in a shallow grave, Danielle Dauphinais shouldn’t count on any breaks from the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office.
Prosecutors filed notice in Hillsborough Superior Court — South that they plan to seek extended prison sentences in case a jury convicts Dauphinais, 38, on anything less than first-degree murder for the death of Elijah Lewis. Lewis was killed in the family’s Merrimack home in 2021, according to court records.
The basis for the extended penalties is the “exceptional cruelty and depravity” Dauphinais showed in killing her little boy. Elijah suffered close to a year of torture, beatings, and starvation thanks to Dauphinais and her boyfriend, Joseph Stapf, according to court records.
Stapf, 33, pleaded guilty in 2022 to manslaughter and other charges for his role in Elijah’s death, part of an agreement that will have him testify against Dauphinais. He is serving a 22- to 45-year prison sentence.
Assistant Attorney General Bethany Durand and Assistant Attorney General Meghan Hagaman want at least as much time behind bars for Dauphinais. Their notice, filed Aug. 21, states that in case Dauphinais is convicted on a lesser second-degree murder charge, or manslaughter charge, they want her in prison for decades.
First-degree murder carries a life sentence without the possibility of parole in New Hampshire. However, the jury could decide to convict Dauphinais on one of three lesser counts; second-degree murder for knowingly causing Elijah’s death; second-degree murder for recklessly causing his death; or manslaughter.
Either second-degree murder can be punished with a life sentence, but typically the penalty for second-degree murder results in less than life in prison. Durand and Hagaman plan to seek at least 35 years to life in prison if Dauphinais is convicted on one of the second-degree murder charges. If she is convicted on the manslaughter charge, Durand and Hagaman want a 20 to 40-year sentence. Manslaughter tops out at 30 years in New Hampshire without any enhancement.
Mike Garrity, Attorney General John Formella’s spokesman said, “We file notice that we may seek enhanced penalties under 651:6 when the factors are present in the facts presented. Second-degree murder of a child 13 or younger is one of those factors, and we have regularly filed notice such notice with such second degree murders.”
After multiple delays, the trial is set for October in Nashua. Dauphinais, who has pleaded not guilty, remains held without bail pending trial.
Chronically malnourished, Elijah was undersized for his age.
Dauphinais allegedly killed him in a rage on Sept. 21, 2021, after weeks of starvation and beatings. Stapf reportedly found the boy naked in the bathtub surrounded by broken tiles smeared in blood. Stapf still did not get the boy medical help. Instead, he bandaged the wound on his head and put him back in his room, according to court records.
After the boy was dead, Dauphinais had Stapf take Elijah’s lifeless body to a forest in Abington, Massachusetts where he was buried, according to court records. Stapf emerges as a coward whose indifference to the boy enabled Dauphinais’s abuse in the court records.
Dauphinais starved her son, made him stand for hours without clothing and blankets in his room in their basement apartment, and she beat him, cut him and burned him, according to court records. All the while, Stapf sided with Dauphinais. When she sent Stapf a text complaining that Elijah wanted food, Stapf played into her abusive parenting.
“Yes, he is a POS big time. Wow, I cannot stand that boy,” Stapf replied.
But Elijah’s worsening condition, and the extreme treatment, started to worry Stapf, according to court records. Stapf decided he wanted Dauphinais to feed the boy and clothe him. The concern, according to the text messages, was getting Elijah healthy enough that the couple could safely leave him with another relative.
“Maybe let him sleep and feed him,” Stapf wrote at one point. “No more you know what to him, he needs to look good so we can go out,” Stapf wrote.
Elijah’s mother was not willing to show any mercy or kindness to her son.
“This (expletive) kid deserves nothing,” she wrote back.
Elijah weighed 19 pounds when he died. The average 5-year-old boy weighs 40 pounds. The boy also had a rotting hole in his back, a result of the torture, according to court records.
The cause of Elijah’s death was violence and neglect, including facial and scalp injuries, acute fentanyl intoxication, malnourishment and pressure ulcers, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Massachusetts.
When authorities started asking questions about Elijah weeks later, Dauphinais and Stapf fled the state. They were arrested Oct. 17, 2021, by officers of the New York City Transit Authority in the Bronx, New York.
