A Bronx judge has found Dimone Fleming not criminally responsible for the deaths of her two young sons, concluding that the 26-year-old was in the grip of postpartum psychosis when she killed them at a family shelter in 2022.
The ruling, delivered Monday and reported by the New York Times, applies the standard of not responsible by reason of mental disease or defect. Fleming had been charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing deaths of 3-year-old Daishawn Fleming and 11-month-old Octavius Canada.
Unusually, there was no real dispute between the two sides about her mental state. Examinations ordered by both the prosecution and the defense reached the same conclusion.
Dr. Eric Goldsmith, the psychiatrist who evaluated Fleming at the prosecution's request, described her on the night of the killings as "grossly psychotic and out of touch with reality." He said she was hallucinating, convinced the world was ending, and believed a spirit had taken over her body.
A forensic psychiatric report prepared by doctors retained by the defense reached a parallel finding: that "Ms. Fleming believed her actions were necessary to protect or ‘cleanse’ her children."
A treatment history that broke down
Court records cited by the Times show Fleming had spent two months as a patient at a Queens hospital before the killings, where she was diagnosed with major depressive disorder and prescribed psychotropic medication.
She did not take that medication as directed. She was instead using marijuana daily, which reportedly worsened her symptoms.
The night of Nov. 26, 2022
The sequence of events that evening was chaotic. A shelter employee called 911 after water and smoke were seen coming from Fleming's apartment. Officers arrived to find her behaving irrationally and took her to a hospital for evaluation.
The children were not found in that first search. The boys' bodies were in the bathtub, under a pile of clothing, and a neighbor had told police the children were with their father. It was Columbus Canada — Fleming's then-boyfriend and Octavius's father — who discovered them unresponsive shortly afterward and called police.
Police sources told reporters at the time that Fleming had confessed to detectives and made statements about the "devil." She was 22 when she was charged.
‘Prosecuting mothers does not prevent these crimes’
In court this week, prosecutors told the judge that taking Fleming to trial for double murder would not serve the interests of justice.
"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."
Canada, now 35, attended Monday's proceeding and said he had forgiven her. "She's a good person," he said. "She was a loving person. She loved kids."
Fleming is not being released. She will be re-evaluated by court-appointed psychiatrists and is due back in court on Sept. 18, when the judge is expected to rule on whether she still poses a danger to others and what happens next. She avoids prison, but is likely to remain hospitalized for months or years.
A parallel case in Massachusetts
The ruling landed while jurors in Plymouth Superior Court were still deliberating in the trial of Lindsay Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse who strangled her three children in 2023 and then attempted to take her own life.
Clancy is asking the jury to find her not guilty by reason of insanity, arguing that she was suffering severe postpartum psychosis that was made worse by a combination of powerful psychiatric medications she had been prescribed.
This story was first reported by the New York Post. Read the original account here: https://nypost.com/2026/08/28/us-news/judge-finds-nyc-mom-with-postpartum-psychosis-not-guilty-of-killing-her-2-young-kids/
