Who is Dimone Fleming? NYC mom with postpartum psychosis found not guilty of 2 sons’ murders amid Lindsay Clancy trial
A US mom was found not criminally responsible due to mental disease or defect by a judge in The Bronx for the 2022 murders of her two sons. Dimone Fleming, 26, was suffering from postpartum psychosis when she stabbed her two children, 3-year-old Daishawn Fleming and 11-month-old Octavius Canada, at a Bronx family shelter, the New York Times reported.
This comes as jurors are in the middle of deliberating a similar fate for Lindsay Clancy. The Massachusetts mother is facing three counts of murder in the killings of her children Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and Callan, 8 months.
Who is Dimone Fleming?
Fleming is from New York City. On the night of the killings, she was “grossly psychotic and out of touch with reality,” according to psychiatrist Dr. Eric Goldsmith.
Goldsmith evaluated Fleming at the request of the prosecution, and said that the mom was hallucinating, believed that the world was coming to an end, and was convinced that a spirit had invaded her body.
“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.
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Fleming had been treated at a Queens hospital for two months before the murders. There, she was diagnosed with major depressive disorder and prescribed psychotropic medication, according to court records, per the New York Times. However, she did not take her medication as prescribed and instead used marijuana daily, which made her mental health symptoms even worse.
According to mental examinations ordered by both the prosecution and defense, Fleming was in a state of psychosis at the time of the killings.
The killings
A shelter employee called 911 to report that water and smoke were coming from Fleming’s apartment on the night of November 26, 2022. 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. Later, Fleming’s then-boyfriend Columbus Canada, Octavius’ father, found the two children unresponsive in the apartment. He then called the police.
Sources told the New York Post that Fleming allegedly confessed to the killings and made statements about the “devil” to detectives. She was subsequently charged with first-degree murder.
Jurors said in court this week 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 reportedly said.
“People talking about it is important, and I hope people continue talking about it,” the prosecutor said.
Fleming is not being released from custody yet. She will be re-evaluated by court-appointed psychiatrists, and is scheduled to return to court on September 18.
Canada told the outlets that he forgives Fleming.
“She’s a good person,” he said. “She was a loving person. She loved kids.”
The judge is set to make a ruling on next steps, and declare if Fleming might still be a threat to others. Even though Fleming will avoid prison, she will likely remain hospitalized for a long time.
This comes as Lindsay’s fate hangs in the balance, with the jury deliberating. According to prosecutors, Lindsay, 35, “acted intentionally, rationally and swiftly” when she fatally strangled her three children at their Duxbury home on January 24, 2023. Her defense attorneys, on the other hand, argued that she is not criminally responsible because she was in the midst of a psychotic episode that stemmed from postpartum mental illness.
Lindsay has pleaded not guilty to the murder charges. If convicted of murder, she faces life in prison without parole. In case she is found not guilty due to a lack of criminal responsibility, she would be committed to a state mental health facility.
