A Bronx judge found Dimone Fleming not criminally responsible for killing her two young sons in 2022 after determining she suffered from postpartum psychosis.
Fleming, 26, was found not responsible by mental disease or defect in court on Monday for the deaths of her children, 3-year-old Daishawn Fleming and 11-month-old Octavius Canada, at a Bronx family shelter. The ruling came as jurors in Massachusetts deliberate a similar insanity defense in the trial of Lindsay Clancy, another mother accused of killing her children while experiencing postpartum psychosis.
On the night of the killings, Fleming was “grossly psychotic and out of touch with reality,” according to psychiatrist Dr. Eric Goldsmith, who evaluated her at the prosecution’s request. Goldsmith said she was hallucinating, convinced that the world was coming to an end and believed a spirit had invaded her body.
Similarly, “Ms. Fleming believed her actions were necessary to protect or ‘cleanse’ her children,” according to a forensic psychiatrist report written by doctors hired by the defense.
Before the killings, Fleming had been treated at a Queens hospital for two months, where she was diagnosed with major depressive disorder and prescribed psychotropic medication, citing court records. But the mother of two did not take her medication as prescribed and instead used marijuana daily, which reportedly exacerbated her mental health symptoms.
Mental examinations ordered by both the prosecution and defense determined Fleming was in a state of psychosis at the time of the killings.
Shortly after, Fleming’s then-boyfriend and father of 11-month-old Octavius, Columbus Canada, 35, found the two young boys unresponsive in the apartment and called police. Police sources said at the time that Fleming allegedly confessed to killing her two young sons and made statements about the “devil” to detectives. The then-22-year-old mother was charged with first-degree murder.
In court this week, prosecutors said that trying Fleming for double murder would not serve justice.
“Prosecuting mothers does not and cannot prevent these crimes from happening, but public discourse might,” Bronx assistant district attorney Tiffany Wichman told the publication.
“People talking about it is important, and I hope people continue talking about it,” the prosecutor added.
Canada was in court on Monday and told the outlet that he forgives Fleming for what she did four years ago.
“She’s a good person,” he said. “She was a loving person. She loved kids.”
Fleming’s case draws eerie parallels to Lindsay Clancy’s highly publicized Massachusetts triple-murder trial, where jurors are in the process of deciding the former labor and delivery nurse’s fate. Clancy wants the jury to find her not guilty by reason of insanity on the grounds she was experiencing severe postpartum psychosis when she strangled her three kids and tried to kill herself, allegedly worsened by a slew of powerful psychiatric meds she was prescribed.
Fleming will not be released from custody immediately. She will be re-evaluated by court-appointed psychiatrists and is slated to return to court on Sept. 18, when the judge is expected to make a ruling on next steps and whether she might still pose a threat to others. While she will avoid prison, Fleming could remain hospitalized for months or years.