By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org

NASHUA — Danielle Dauphinais will be 91 years old by the time she’s eligible for parole now that she’s been sentenced to at least 53 1/2 years in prison for the murder of her son, Elijah Lewis.

Dauphinais, who pleaded guilty to a second-degree murder charge last month as part of a plea agreement, entered the Hillsborough Superior Court South in Nashua on Friday hoping for less time in the torture and murder of her 5-year-old boy. But saying he’s been haunted by Elijah’s memory, Judge Charles Temple said, Dauphinais must be removed from society.

“It was an abhorrent, heinous, prolonged torture and murder inspired by pure hate,” Temple told Dauphinais. “You knew exactly what you were doing to Elijah. You were killing him hour by hour, day by day, month by month.”

Elijah’s broken body was found in a shallow grave in the woods in Abington, Massachusetts after his mother inflicted close to a year of beatings, near starvation, and isolation on the little boy. Temple repeatedly held up a photo of Elijah from when he was 4 years old, just as he was starting his short life with his mother in Merrimack. The smiling, happy boy in the photo Temple held up is what everyone should remember, the judge said.

“It’s a picture, photograph, of a defenseless, vulnerable, dependent little guy. You can see the light in his face,” Temple said. “He deserved love. The one thing he didn’t deserve is hate, and hate rained down upon him.”

Temple said he hoped people in the community, the police officers who searched for Elijah, and everyone else touched by the case remembered that picture and not the photos of Elijah’s battered and bloodied body, a body wracked with open sores, a body starved and emaciated, and a body poisoned by his mother’s fentanyl.

“The Elijah in Massachusetts, in that shallow grave, should only be remembered by two people in this case, the defendant before the court today, and Joseph Stapf,” Temple said. “That should haunt them the rest of their lives.”

Stapf, 33, is currently serving a 22- to 45-year sentence for his role in Elijah’s death. Stapf admitted to beating the boy multiple times along with Dauphinais, as well as helping her cover up the murder. Stapf dug the shallow grave in Massachusetts where they discarded Elijah. 

Evidence shows Stapf knew toward the end of Elijah’s life that the boy needed help, was suffering, and could die. But Stapf failed to do anything and always deferred to Dauphinais who repeatedly said she hated Elijah and wanted to kill him.

Dauphinais pleaded for less prison time, claiming she was overwhelmed by Elijah’s special needs and fell into a spiral of drug addiction coupled with her past trauma. Dauphinais claimed she suffered childhood abuse and neglect and did not know how to raise children.

“People in my life who were supposed to protect me also failed me. These people were my role models,” Dauphinais said.

Dauphinais and her attorney, Ben Faulkner, wanted a 35-year to life sentence for the second-degree murder charge, as opposed to the state’s request for 55 years to life. Assistant Attorney General Meghan Hagaman told Temple there is no evidence of Dauphinais’ childhood abuse, and even if there were, there is a key difference between the mother and her child.

“She survived her abuse and neglect. Elijah did not,” Hagaman said.

Hagaman showed the court a series of texts Dauphinais sent Stapf in the months she was torturing Elijah, along with photos she took of the boy that charts his deterioration. Elijah gets progressively skinnier, starts losing his hair, and develops a hunched back as the photos depict more time with Dauphinais and Stapf. He never smiles in any of the photos Dauphinais took. The final photo of Elijah wrapped in a blanket with only his face showing, a face that had clearly been beaten.

“Just whooped the fucking maggot’s ass,” Dauphinais wrote to Stapf along with the final photo.

Temple recalled that text in his sentencing, again holding up the smiling photo of Elijah and addressing Dauphinais.

“I look at this, and this is not a maggot, this is a beautiful little boy,” Temple said.

Temple sentenced Dauphinais to 50 years to life for the second-degree murder conviction, and 3 ½ to 7 years each for two witness tampering convictions. The witness tampering convictions are to run concurrent with each other, but consecutive with the murder conviction. That means she will serve at least 53 1/2 years before she is eligible for parole.

Michaela Morrison, Elijah’s aunt, was in the courthouse throughout Friday’s sentencing hearing, and said there is no sentence that can do real justice for Elijah. But keeping her in prison until she is well past the age she can have children, or care for children, is something.

“Knowing that she won’t be getting out is a huge relief for everyone in the community,” Morrison said.

Tim Lewis, Elijah’s father, participated in the hearing via video. His son’s death has ripped apart his family as his parents have disowned him for taking Elijah to Dauphinais in October of 2020, and leaving him with her. Elijah would be dead by September of 2021.

“You are beyond pure evil,” Tim Lewis said to Dauphinais. “It’s sick, you are absolutely the most pathetic excuse for a person. All you had to do was stop lying and bring him home.”

Faulkner said Tim Lewis hid Elijah’s serious behavioral and psychiatric issues from Dauphinais before leaving the 4-year-old boy with her. Those issues may have been some form of autism, or the result of fetal alcohol syndrome, according to Faulkner. Dauphinais also blamed Tim Lewis for not helping her with Elijah’s health insurance even though he had state Medicaid insurance and did not need his father’s coverage in order to see a doctor.

Temple also addressed Elijah, a little boy whose short life will stay with him forever.

“My hope is that Elijah, you’re in heavenly places now where all your tears are wiped away,” Temple said. “I hope there is no more suffering for Elijah, just peace and love. He deserves it.”