A Bronx mother who killed her two young sons during what psychiatrists described as a severe episode of postpartum psychosis has been found not criminally responsible for their deaths—a ruling that does not free her but could send her to a psychiatric institution for years.

Dimone Fleming, now 26, was found not responsible by reason of mental disease or defect for the November 2022 deaths of 3-year-old Daishawn Fleming and his 11-month-old brother, Octavius Canada.

The ruling followed psychiatric evaluations requested by both the prosecution and the defense. Experts on each side concluded that Fleming was experiencing psychosis when she killed the children inside an apartment at a Bronx family shelter.

Dr. Eric Goldsmith, who examined Fleming for prosecutors, described her as profoundly psychotic and disconnected from reality that night.

According to his evaluation, Fleming was hallucinating, believed the world was ending and thought a spirit had entered her body. A separate report from defense experts said she believed killing her children was necessary to protect or “cleanse” them.

Those findings persuaded prosecutors that pursuing a traditional murder conviction would not deliver justice.

Assistant District Attorney Tiffany Wichman said prosecuting mothers after such tragedies cannot prevent similar deaths. She instead emphasized the need for greater public discussion about postpartum mental illness and its potentially catastrophic consequences.

The case began on the night of November 26, 2022, when a shelter employee called 911 after noticing smoke and water coming from Fleming’s apartment.

Police officers encountered Fleming behaving irrationally and transported her to a hospital for evaluation. They did not initially discover the two children, who were concealed beneath clothing in the apartment’s bathtub. A neighbor had mistakenly told officers that the boys were with their father.

A short time later, Columbus Canada—Fleming’s then-boyfriend and Octavius’ father—entered the apartment and found both children unresponsive. He immediately contacted police.

The boys had suffered repeated stab wounds and were pronounced dead.

Police sources said Fleming later admitted killing her sons and made statements involving the devil while speaking with investigators. She was subsequently charged with first-degree murder.

Court records showed that Fleming had received psychiatric treatment for approximately two months at a Queens hospital before the killings. She had been diagnosed with major depressive disorder and prescribed psychotropic medication.

Reports indicated that she did not take the medication as prescribed and used marijuana daily, which evaluators believed aggravated her psychiatric symptoms.

The judge’s decision does not mean the killings did not happen, nor does it amount to an ordinary acquittal. It means the court determined that Fleming’s mental condition prevented her from being held criminally responsible under the law.

She will not be released immediately.

Court-appointed psychiatrists must now evaluate her again and determine whether she continues to pose a danger to herself or other people. Fleming is scheduled to return to court on September 18, when the judge is expected to consider what should happen next.

Although she will avoid a conventional prison sentence, she could remain confined in a psychiatric hospital for months or potentially years.

The children’s father attended the court proceeding and delivered perhaps its most emotionally complicated response.

Canada said he had forgiven Fleming for what happened. He remembered her as a loving person who cared deeply for children, even after losing his own son in the unimaginable tragedy.

His words underscored the devastating nature of postpartum psychosis: a severe mental-health emergency that can cause hallucinations, delusions, confusion and a dangerous loss of contact with reality. It is different from the more common postpartum depression and requires immediate medical intervention.

Fleming’s case has attracted additional attention because of its similarities to the highly publicized prosecution of Massachusetts mother Lindsay Clancy, who killed her three children in 2023.

Clancy’s defense likewise argued that she was experiencing severe postpartum psychosis and could not be held criminally responsible. Her attorneys also contended that numerous psychiatric medications had worsened her condition.

Despite the parallels, each case must be decided according to its own medical evidence and applicable state law.

In Fleming’s case, both prosecution and defense experts reached the same essential conclusion: on the night her children died, she was suffering from a devastating psychiatric illness and had lost touch with reality.

The judge has now accepted that conclusion.

Yet the ruling offers nothing resembling a happy ending. Two young brothers are dead, a mother faces an uncertain future inside a psychiatric institution, and a grieving father has been left trying to reconcile the woman he knew with the horrific act committed during her mental collapse.

The court answered the question of criminal responsibility.

The far more painful question—whether earlier recognition and treatment of Fleming’s worsening illness could have saved Daishawn and Octavius—may haunt everyone involved for much longer.