Doctors for both sides concluded Dimone Fleming was psychotic when her two young sons died at a Bronx family shelter in 2022.
NEW YORK — Psychiatric findings that Dimone Fleming was experiencing severe psychosis when her two sons died in 2022 became central to a Bronx judge’s decision to find her not responsible because of mental disease or defect, bringing unusual public attention to postpartum psychosis and its role in criminal responsibility.
Fleming, now 26, had faced a first-degree murder charge and additional counts in the deaths of 3-year-old Daishawn Fleming and 11-month-old Octavius Canada. The boys were found dead Nov. 26, 2022, at the family shelter where Fleming lived in the Mount Hope section of the Bronx. Rather than proceed toward a conventional murder conviction, the case ultimately turned on psychiatric evaluations obtained by both prosecutors and the defense.
Those examinations concluded Fleming was in a state of psychosis when the children died. Accounts of the psychiatric reports said she was experiencing hallucinations and delusional beliefs, including fears that the world was ending. A defense psychiatric assessment said she believed her actions were necessary to protect or cleanse her children. The court found Monday that she was not criminally responsible because of her mental condition.
Postpartum psychosis is a severe psychiatric condition that can involve hallucinations, delusions and a profound break with reality after childbirth. Dr. Veerle Bergink, director of the Mount Sinai Women’s Health Center and an expert in postpartum mental illness, told WABC that rapid biological changes after delivery, including sharp hormonal shifts, are believed to contribute to the disorder in some patients.
Bergink stressed that harm to children is a rare outcome. Cases involving deaths receive intense attention because of their severity, she said, but they do not represent what typically happens when someone develops postpartum psychiatric illness. That distinction is significant as Fleming’s case draws attention beyond the courtroom to questions about how severe postpartum mental illness is identified and treated.
According to reports citing court records, Fleming had undergone mental health treatment before the deaths and had been diagnosed with major depressive disorder. She had been prescribed psychiatric medication. Later forensic examinations focused not simply on whether she had a mental illness but on how severely her illness affected her ability to understand reality at the time her sons died.
The Bronx District Attorney’s Office said in Fleming’s 2024 indictment that the children had been repeatedly stabbed and were discovered in a bathtub filled with water. Police described Fleming’s behavior that night as erratic. Those facts initially formed the basis of a murder prosecution, but the later psychiatric evidence changed the legal question from whether the deaths occurred to whether Fleming could be held criminally responsible for her conduct.
A finding of nonresponsibility because of mental disease or defect does not mean Fleming is being released. She remains in custody and has been ordered to undergo another psychiatric evaluation. The next assessment will address her current mental condition and whether continued confinement in a psychiatric setting is necessary for public safety and treatment.
The ruling came during heightened national attention to postpartum mental illness in criminal cases. A separate Massachusetts prosecution involving Lindsay Clancy has also centered in part on competing expert opinions about whether severe mental illness affected criminal responsibility. The cases involve different facts, evidence and state laws, and the outcome of one does not determine the other.
In Fleming’s case, the agreement of psychiatric evaluations from both the prosecution and defense distinguished the proceeding from cases in which experts sharply dispute a defendant’s mental state. The Bronx court’s finding placed those medical conclusions at the center of the legal resolution while leaving a separate question — Fleming’s present psychiatric condition — for further evaluation.
Fleming is expected back in court Sept. 18. Until then, she will remain in custody as court-appointed doctors evaluate what level of psychiatric treatment and security is appropriate following the finding that she was not responsible for her sons’ deaths because of mental disease or defect.
Author note: Last updated August 29, 2026.