A mother kidnapped her 11-month-old son and shot him in the face because she didn’t want the boy’s father to have custody over him — chillingly telling investigators she thought the killing was “worth it.”
Madeline Veronique Daly, 36, was convicted this week of killing baby Basil Stoner inside of an RV in rural New Mexico, as cops closed in on her, prosecutors said.
Authorities had responded to the RV after the mom snatched the boy and took him across state lines in violation of a court order.
She then tried to turn the gun on herself, but officers were able to subdue her, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by Cowboy State Daily.
After her arrest, Daly told police she believed she was keeping her son “safe” — and that killing the child was “worth it” if it meant the boy’s father and parental relatives would never have the chance to see him.
Daly had taken Basil from Wyoming to New Mexico, violating a court order that had granted emergency custody to the child’s father, who told investigators he had last seen his son on Sept. 28.
The Grant County Sheriff’s Office tracked her down to an RV park on Dec. 23 after she applied for a job near Silver City and a warrant arrest popped up on her background check.
Police saw her run inside an RV and surrounded it as they waited for a warrant to get inside.
Then they heard a single gunshot and rushed in to see Daly had fatally shot Basil with a 9mm handgun in the face.
Daly told police that she kidnapped her own son because “she was not going to allow her (then) 8-month-old baby go back and forth from Nebraska to Wyoming twice a month,” according to the affidavit.
“When asked what went through her mind when she saw law enforcement walking up, she replied, ‘Jake can’t get Basil,’” police wrote in the document.
She also made unsubstantiated claims that Basil “would have been in danger and molested” if she got out of the trailer with him and that his father “never wanted anything to do with” the boy “financially, physically, emotionally ever.”
Daly pleaded guilty on Wednesday to first-degree murder.
She is facing the maximum sentence of life in prison, prosecutors said.
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